About Us
The Village Writing Project (VWP) at Auburn University is an affiliate of the National Writing Project (NWP) network, the nation’s leading professional development and learning community for teacher-writers and teachers of writing. The heart of VWP is educators’ knowledge, experience, and voices and growing and maintaining a community that connects teaching with practice. We offer a range of professional development opportunities for educators, from our annual invitational Summer Institute to school and district level PD, and community engagement and enrichment opportunities for youth.
The Summer Institute
The VWP Summer Institute is a two-week (plus a pre- and post-institute meeting) professional development experience focused on providing K-12 teachers, administrators, and others with opportunities to collaborate, reflect, write, and grow together. The Summer Institute is a space to learn from and with other educators and to develop the knowledge, the network, and the agency to teach beyond the standards, to engage and explore writing as individuals, and to gain insight into issues of social justice and equity that face our classrooms and communities today.
2025 Summer Institute Information
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Location: University Writing Studio in the Ralph Brown Draughon Library on the campus of Auburn University
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Pre-Institute Meeting: Saturday in April (Date TBD), 9:00 - 1:00
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Two-Week Institute:
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June 2-6, 8:30 - 4:00
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June 9-13, 8:30 - 4:00
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Post-Institute Meeting: Saturday in September or October (Date TBD), 9:00 - 1:00
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Note that there will be some asynchronous work (e.g., book clubs, designing and implementing instruction, etc.)
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Participation in the Summer Institute is free of charge and comes along with a stipend for participants
Vision and Mission
The Village Writing Project is dedicated to supporting the teaching of writing and helping teachers grow as writers. We work with teachers, districts, students, and others invested in writing and literacy education via ongoing and multifaceted professional development centered on writing and the art of teaching. We provide a home for educators that nurtures and empowers teachers to be writers, researchers, leaders, and activists in their schools and communities and who in turn inspire and empower their students to do the same.
We Believe In
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Diversity, equity, and justice
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Mentorship and collaboration
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The expertise of teachers
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The power of teachers as practitioners
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Teachers can be agents of change in/on the world
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Writing is essential to developing and utilizing one's voice
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The need for intentional and sustainable growth of teachers, students, and the VWP
