About Us

Phebe Kwarteng
Visual Communications ’27

Carter Martin
Film, Art Photography minor, ’26

Brenne Sheehan
Magazine, News, and Digital Journalism, Applied Data Analytics minor, ’27

Alyssa Tran
Finance and Information Management and Technology ’27

Abigail Traska
Psychology and Creative Writing ’25

Erica Watts
Television, Radio, and Film ’27

About Tell Your Story Walking

Back in 2011, I introduced a creative nonfiction writing course in Syracuse’s Renée Crown University Honors Program in which students write stories about their lives—their childhoods, families, hometowns, travels, and more. 

I called the course Tell Your Story Walking, after a song by Deb Talan. (As it happens, she in turn adopted this phrase from another source—Jonathan Lethem’s detective novel Motherless Brooklyn.)

I chose this title for my class because Tell Your Story Walking, to me, captures a vital truth about writing or any creative work: the best writing is about exploring, searching for understanding…finding the story. A great story is not a summary or recap—it’s a journey of discovery for both the author and the reader. It’s not stationary; we are walking through experiences as they unfold, and reckoning with what they mean.

Over the years the Tell Your Story Walking course has inspired some great writing—vivid, thoughtful, and heartfelt, with the clear ring of personal truth. These stories sparked a conversation within the Honors program about how this work deserved a wider audience, in the campus community and beyond. Which is why we created the Tell Your Story Walking magazine and website. 

In 2020, a group of undergraduate students edited and published all the content for an inaugural edition through a new Honors course (HNR 340: Producing a Creative Nonfiction Anthology). Right away they expanded the project beyond its roots in creative nonfiction writing, to encompass visual art, multimedia, and more. 

In 2021, 2022, and 2024 came new editions of Tell Your Story Walking, with successive groups of student editors putting their own stamp on this publication—and continuing the good work of sharing the diverse voices and stories of this community.

Moving forward, Tell Your Story Walking will be published every other fall semester, alternating years with another publication written, edited, and produced by students: The Crown: Syracuse Honors Research Journal. Look for the next edition of The Crown in fall 2025, followed by Tell Your Story Walking in 2026.

Thanks to all who have shared their stories—and followed along.

—Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers