While attending graduate school, one of the main messages students can take away from their courses is the importance of pursuing public scholarship. Public scholarship is taking initiative outside the classroom to develop academic or creative connections beyond the university setting. This includes attending conferences, publishing work either online or through academic journals, or volunteering for different events in the community. Public scholarship not only allows students to further expand and their interests, but also establish connections that could elevate or establish future employment opportunities.
Recently, the Red Rose Transit Authority has created a public scholarship opportunity by recognizing the power of poetry. The transportation service launched the “Poetry in Transit” project, which will twenty selected poems to be placed on placards in the local buses. Poets must be from Lancaster County, and can submit up to two poems to be considered, each containing six lines or less. The theme for the poems will be bodies of water, and if you feel you already have a piece that fits this theme, you can submit any portion of previous work as long as it is only six lines. Decisions will be made before December 1st, and the selected poems will be on the buses in the new year.
To submit your work, entrants must submit their poems through the postal service. This submission must include a page with a short bio along with your name, address, phone number, and email. The poems themselves must be printed on separate pages with no identifying information on the page with the poems. The date for submitting poems will be from now up until the 15th of October, as submissions arriving after this time will not be considered. Any questions about how to submit or about the poetry in transit project itself can be sent to either Glinda@wordhive.org or Tom@wordhive.org via email. If you are interested in public scholarship but not poetry specifically, Millersville University has a center dedicated to public scholarship and social change. Their information is linked below.
Link to Millersville’s Center for Public Scholarship and Social Change: https://www.millersville.edu/collegecenters/cpssc/Poetry in Transit CALL FOR POEMS 2024 (1)Poetry in Transit CALL FOR POEMS 2024 (1)