Zines, Stories, and Finding Your Voice at Eagle Rock

Here at Eagle Rock School, we believe students hold immense power and we want them to explore it through a variety of modalities on campus. Through zines, creative nonfiction, and a whole lot of curiosity, our classrooms are becoming places where students discover that their voices matter and that writing can be playful, powerful, and deeply real. Our Literature and Literacy Fellow, Tanya Sopkin, is leading the charge with zine and creative nonfiction classes that have sparked a renewed excitement for writing across campus.

Writing as Power, Play, and Possibility

We see writing light up when students realize it is not just an academic requirement, but a tool they can use to understand themselves and the world around them. In Tanya’s classes, reading, writing, and thinking outside the box have a special place at the table. Tanya creates spaces where students learn that research can be rigorous and creative at the same time, and that storytelling can hold both personal truth and collective history.

Tanya is a second-year Literature and Literacy Instructional Fellow and Piñon Houseparent, and this year marks her first year solo teaching. On campus, they teach English classes, run the Spectrum Club for queer students, and have even joined on  Wilderness trips as an instructor. Her path to Eagle Rock began in Colorado, where she grew up and later graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Sociology and a minor in English. While at CSU, they interned with the Community Literacy Center’s SpeakOut! Program, leading creative writing workshops at a women’s housing shelter and publishing an annual journal of participants’ work. That belief in literacy as empowerment lives on in her classroom today. Tanya has also been published in several literary journals, and their sociological lens pushes students to question power structures, challenge norms, and imagine more equitable futures.

Zines, Stories, and the Joy of Doing It Differently

In our “Zine the Revolution!” course, students explored the history of zines as tools of activism and self-publishing, from the Harlem Renaissance to punk culture and science fiction communities. They studied how marginalized voices have always found ways to share ideas, even in oppressive systems. Students didn’t just learn this history–they joined it. Each student created a mini-zine, deeply researched and carefully cited, and later expanded their work into larger booklet-style zines on topics they were passionate about. Graphic design, activism, and academic research collided in the best way.

A highlight for many was a field trip to the Denver Zine Fest, where students immersed themselves in a vibrant community of creators and saw firsthand how ideas travel hand to hand. Back on campus, their work now lives on in a growing zine library, available in print and PDF, making their voices part of Eagle Rock’s living archive.

In the class, “Story of My Life,” Tanya invited students into the world of creative nonfiction. Through daily free writes, shared readings, grammar and structure lessons, and MFA-style workshops, students learned how to shape lived experience into compelling narratives. What emerged was more than strong writing. The class became a place of trust, vulnerability, and deep respect. Students practiced giving and receiving feedback, learned to set boundaries around what they shared, and built empathy through listening. The impact was so strong that it inspired an evening storytelling program on campus, extending this culture beyond the classroom.

Learning That Stays With You

The power of these classes has rippled across Eagle Rock. Students now make zines in other classes, reference Tanya’s courses in their Presentations of Learning (POLs), and carry their writing habits into new spaces. They are gaining tangible skills in research, citation, grammar, and style, while also learning something harder to quantify but just as vital: agency. Students learn that they do not need permission to create, that their emotions and experiences are worthy of exploration, and that connection to self, community, and land can be expressed through words.

This is what enduring learning looks like to us. Years from now, we hope students remember that writing can be subversive, healing, and joyful. That they always have power, even in small, quiet acts of creation.

If you are a student who wants to explore learning in ways that are creative, meaningful, and deeply human, we invite you to connect with us. At Eagle Rock School, we support curiosity, encourage risk-taking, and walk alongside students as they discover who they are and who they want to become. Learn more, reach out, and apply to join our community. Your story belongs here.