Hannah Sutton remembers what it felt like, as a high school junior in 2018, when she walked across the stage of Fresno State’s Satellite Student Union and accepted an award for her creative writing.

As the University High School student nervously approached, a voice from backstage read an excerpt from her winning short story to the 400-plus people in the room. It was a tale about finding her true soul within the universe of her own mind:

“Maybe I don’t know exactly how to describe those stars — a collection of silver souls set upon vivid shades of blue, all cast along the universe. And I don’t know what my fears completely contain …”

The award came with a cash prize and publication in the university’s Young Writers’ Conference journal, Spectrum, which marked the first time Sutton and some of her teen peers got to see their own writing in print. 

“It was the first time I’d ever submitted something not for a grade,” she said. “I was shocked. To have my story recognized, it’s like — ‘Oh! This is good! This is something people want to read!’ You get this big boost of confidence.”

Fast forward to earlier this year:

Sutton is now a graduate student in Fresno State’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing. Without hesitation, the rising fiction writer volunteers to lead one of the 2025 conference’s workshops, and she also decides to make a gift to the event’s adopt-a-school initiative, which supports young writers in need by paying their registration fees.

“The Young Writers’ Conference is such a great opportunity, and it helped me in so many ways,” said Sutton, who earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from CSU Monterey Bay before coming back home to Fresno for her graduate studies. 

“I feel like people forget how important all the extra things are,” she said. “Because school isn’t just a place to get a diploma or a degree. It’s a place to figure out what you care about and what you’re passionate about, and I wanted to help towards that.”

Sutton is one of dozens of philanthropic partners who each year come together to make the Young Writers’ Conference a reality through their gifts.

These donors — some big, some small; some from campus, some from the community — directly impact attendees of the conference, which invites young writers to literally see themselves on a college campus and encourages them to imagine a life as a professional writer, where their words and their experiences matter.

Fresno State’s English Department founded the Young Writers’ Conference in 1980. The event has welcomed thousands of area high school students and their teachers to campus over the past 45 years, and hundreds of young writers have been published in the pages of Spectrum.

According to Dr. René Rodríguez-Astacio, an assistant professor of English who co-coordinates the conference, the annual event is produced through a patchwork of funding sources. In recent years, half or more of those funds have come from philanthropic partners, who contribute to school adoptions and also cover 100% of the writing awards.

“I’m deeply grateful to our supporters for believing in the power of writing and investing in our next generation of storytellers,” Rodríguez-Astacio said. “Their generosity sparks creativity, confidence, and possibility in young writers from across Central California.”

The conference’s adopt-a-school initiative began in 2022, as a way to provide financial assistance for area schools in need of covering their registration costs. The effort was inspired in part by the annual Theatre for Young Audiences production in the Department of Theatre and Dance, which uses a similar adopt-a-school approach.

Former Arts and Humanities Advisory Board member Cindy Wathen-Kennedy initially spearheaded the initiative. She has adopted full school delegations in each of the past four years, supporting young writers from Corcoran, Liberty, Los Banos, Mission Oak and Washington Union high schools.

“I’m motivated to keep supporting the YWC because I know it’s still one of the few forms of literary outreach to younger kids,” she said. “I also know that with the Central Valley’s poverty levels, too many young writers wouldn’t be able to attend unless we donate. The conference changes lives, and that’s the greatest motivation and reward.”

A longtime marketing professional and supporter of the arts, Wathen-Kennedy previously worked on campus as communications staff for both the English Department and the Fresno State Library. She first served as part of the conference staff in 2012 and has been hooked on the event ever since.

“I think what immediately struck me was the sheer wonder and excitement the kids were experiencing,” she said. “You could tell this was a completely new experience for them. They were getting to see more of the world, be creative, be heard, feel supported. And their pride in their schools was utterly charming.”

Wathen-Kennedy currently works as a film producer, and she owns and operates the independent production company MirrorMirrorBall Films. While she has been a book author herself and has worked extensively in publishing, media and the arts, it’s the “ultimate reward” for her to see so many young writers each year discover new and joyful aspects about themselves.

“I quickly realized that many of these young kids don’t have the means or opportunity to spend time on a college campus, much less explore creative writing,” she said. “You could sense that many of them are falling in love with a future for the very first time.”

Victoria Cisneros Soto fell in love with seeing herself at a university when she first visited Fresno State in the early 2010s. As a student at Selma High School, she was then part of the editorial staff of The Clarion, the school’s student-run newspaper.

Her Selma High journalism teacher, Forest Castle, each year would bring a delegation of students to an annual journalism conference on campus, where his aspiring media professionals attended workshops and practiced their craft at event-day competitions.

While that journalism conference has since dissolved (along with many high school newspapers), The Clarion remains strong. Castle heard about the Young Writers’ Conference in 2018 and has been bringing his students ever since.

Cisneros Soto, a two-time alumna of Fresno State’s Communication Department, now works on campus as a marketing and communications strategist. Forever a Selma Bear, she has stayed connected with Castle over the years.

Each year, when Castle and his Clarion students visit campus for the conference, Cisneros Soto meets up with them. At first, it was a brief hello during lunch break. Now, she attends the full morning awards and keynote session with them.

“Being able to see current Selma High students on campus, getting a similar experience to me, feels full circle,” Cisneros Soto said. “I know just how valuable an experience like this can be and the doors it can open, in terms of how they see themselves.”

Cisneros Soto enjoys meeting young writers who are so willing to “put their lives to paper,” often telling deeply personal stories about growing up in rural towns, navigating family dynamics, and just being a kid. She said the Young Writers’ Conference “emphasizes the importance of finding your voice and using your writing to define it.”

“They likely don’t even realize how relatable their experiences are to both the students in the room and guests like me,” she said. “It’s incredibly inspiring.”

This year, Cisneros Soto felt compelled to make her first gift to the Young Writers’ Conference. While she said her donation “was on the smaller side,” it was paired with other generous donations to ensure every student in Selma High’s group was able to attend. 

“Knowing my small donation was able to cover the cost of three students from my high school alma mater, to attend an event at my college alma mater and now workplace, that was such an amazing feeling,” she said. “It made me realize the value of every gift, no matter how small.”