• Helen Deutsch Writing Workshops
• Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship
• The Literacy Committee
• The Mentor Group
• Global Initiative
• Television History Education Project
• The Baltimore Sun Fellowship

The WGAE Foundation/Scenarios USA Mentor Group

The WGAE Foundation has partnered with Scenarios USA to establish the WGAE Foundation Mentor Group.

Scenarios USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that uses writing and filmmaking to foster youth leadership, advocacy and self-expression. Each year young people “graduate” from the program from high schools in Cleveland, South Texas and New York City.

The mission of the Mentor Group is to identify talented young writers from under-served communities in order to give them an opportunity and encouragement to become professional screenwriters.

Each young screenwriter will come into the program with a script already in progress or a specific writing career goal in mind. The focus will not only be on feature film writing, but also on episodic television and news writing as well.

Eight New York-based Scenarios alumni, ages 17–22, have been accepted into the inaugural program. Each has demonstrated a commitment to writing and an interest in becoming a professional screenwriter. Our hope is to give these young writers the guidance they need to become successful.

The mentors and protégés will meet on a monthly basis in the WGAE offices from June to November 2010. Each meeting is scheduled to run 1-1/2 hours and will consist of two sections: a lecture/presentation and one-on-one sessions pairing individual protégés with mentors. The needs of each protégé will largely determine what happens in the one-on-one sessions, but the mentors will give each young writer an assignment that they will have to work on over the course of the month. Protégés will be invited to correspond with their mentors by email in the times between meetings.

The final session will be a graduation event that will feature staged readings from the protégé’s screenplays.