Professors Nancee Kessinger and Marilynn Schenk hosted a special event on May 14 for their English 56 classes.

Their student’s had been assigned secret pen pals from each respective class, which were revealed at the event.

Working from a common text, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario, Kessinger and Schenk’s students corresponded to each other via anonymous emails. These letters were written on specific topics relating to their shared source material.

“We wanted to make sure that reading and writing stays focused on human communication,” Kessinger said about the pen pal project. “We wanted to give the students something to care about, a real situation, as opposed to a more traditional approach.”

“Enrique’s Journey” is about a young Honduran man who sets out to reach America in order to find his mother, so the topics where about everything from identity, immigration, anchor babies (children born to foreign parents who give the family ties to the country) and South American culture.

The event was hosted in the LRC, and the students brought food and drinks to share. They also presented their research projects to each other that they had finished in English 56.

Dean of Humanities Larry Weiss made an appearance and condoned both the students and Schenk and Kessinger for their good work.

Both Kessinger and Schenk were delighted with how passionate the students were about the project.

German Garcia played a rap song he had recorded for his classmates, and said the entire project had been a great experience, where you actually learn because you are having fun doing it.

“What other English class do you get to play music in?” said Garcia. “It was a great way to express yourself and have fun in class.”

Ailen Nguyen’s secret pen pal could not make it to the event, but she appreciated the experience nonetheless.

“We wrote two letters to each other over the course of two to three weeks,” said Nguyen. She also took the opportunity to thank the teachers up at the podium.

Dilor Madzhidova was one of the students who managed to meet up with her pen pal, Alex Hubbard.

“Alex tried to share his grandparent’s experience which was similar to Enrique’s story in the book,” said Madzhidova. “They were put in the same situation, where parents make sacrifices for the best of their children.”