California Poets in the Schools is incredibly happy to welcome the county of Merced to the list of California counties with an active poetry-in-schools program administered by CalPoets. Dawn Trook, a multi-talented artist/performer and recent creative writing professor at UC Merced, has taken on the role of Area Coordinator of Merced County. Dawn
immediately trained Randi Ocena as a Poet-Teacher to join her in building the program in Merced County. Thanks to a generous support from a individual donor with long ties to Merced, Molly Fisk funds via her Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow grant, and the willingness of Dawn Trook to immediately step up to the task, CalPoets is currently moving forward and teaching creative poetry writing residencies in two high-need Merced schools during the 2019-20 school year. Welcome Dawn, Randi and Merced County!!!
