Gayleen Roelfsema Vice-Principal Olds Junior/Senior High School
Gayleen Roelfsema
Vice-Principal
Olds Junior/Senior High School
5122 48th Street
Olds, Alberta
T4H 1T1
RE: Wakefield Brewster
aka: da lyrical pitbull
Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Inspirational Speaker
To Whom It May Concern:
I am pleased to provide this letter of recommendation for Mr. Wakefield Brewster. As Vice-Principal of Olds High School, where Wakefield has worked with our students on two occasions, I can vouch for his powerful and impactful influence on a wide variety of students.
We first contracted Wakefield to come to our school as part of a biannual event called Diversity Day. Wakefield was our keynote speaker, and students were so drawn to his message and his presentation that they asked us to bring him back to the school for another presentation. It is a rare experience in a high school for students to pressure teachers and administration for a further learning experience! The feedback from the students was so overwhelming that we found room in a very tight budget to bring Wakefield back for an extended Poet in Residence experience.
During the week Wakefield was with us, he presented his personal story and his poetry to a wide variety of academic and non-academic students. Once again, the students reacted to Wakefield with true appreciation and were inspired to creative and personal excellence by his poetry and his personality. He spent an extended period of time with a group of students who had self-identified as creative writers. Among this group was my own son, who had struggled personally and academically in school. Wakefield had a profoundly positive effect on all these students, and on my son especially. Mitch began using his writing as a tool for self-exploration and esteem building. He has kept in touch with Wakefield and has graduated from High School and has plans to attend University, entering a creative field.
We will definitely be bringing Wakefield back as a presenter to OHS. I would highly recommend him to any educational institution wanting to reach a diverse audience of students. He is one of the most memorable guests we have ever had in our building.
Sincerely,
Gayleen Roelfsema
