Elani Spencer

Created creative writing curriculums and led 1.5-hour workshops for children 7-14 at local summer literary programs including Writers & Books Summer Write camp and University of Rochester Young Writers Camp.

Developed experiential learning focused agendas for workshops at Roanoke’s Community Highschool for ages 14-18.

Provided proofreading and editing services to writers for both fiction and non-fiction narratives offered on my official WordPress website that is self-designed.

Conceptualized and conducted research for Roanoke’s 10-year Arts and Cultural Plan, organized multiple community-focused events to gather feedback on the draft, and presented relevant data on successful Arts & Cultural Plans across the U.S. to the steering committee.

Promoted the Roanoke YPL program by giving presentations and running activities with K-12 classrooms and curating 40 posts for the Roanoke YPL Instagram account using Canva.

Organized the Commission’s physical archive to make it easily accessible for all employees and collaborators.

Designed posters on In-Design and Canva, created catalogs using Microsoft Word, and collaborated with the other intern to film TikTok videos as part of the center’s social media marketing campaign.

Produced over 20 literary anthologies of works by children 8-13 using Canva for distribution to their families.

Collected and analyzed pre and post survey data for Summer literary arts camp for over 600 participants using Microsoft Spreadsheets.

Wrote daily logs of camp activities and sent them by email to parents and families each day.

Reviewed over 500 poetry submissions and graded them based on form, poetic devices, theme, emotion, and relevance to the journal. Then, met with the editorial team to discuss approved and denied poems to narrow down the publication list.

Curated Instagram posts using Canva and iMovie for the official Artemis Journal account to attract new readers, artists, and poets.

Performed at the 2025 Artemis Journal to honor the life of Nikki Giovanni and her contributions to the journal.

Facilitated workshops, discussions, and slam performances as a wordsmith at the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife and Cultural Festival in DC.

Planned and hosted a bilingual poetry event focused on “Sense of Belonging” in VA for the “Every Tongue Poetry and Civics Project” sponsored by the White House Youth Policy Summit.

Organized a workshop for “Perseverance and Resilience: Supporting Veterans through Poetry,” a project sponsored by The Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship awarded to Mattie Quesenberry Smith.

Guided over 50 librarians on how to introduce poetry to students of all ages through writing exercises with banned books as a spokesperson for the 2025 Virginia Association of School Librarians conference.

Wrote and edited an original poem that was gifted to Roanoke, VA’s sister city, Wonju, South Korea where it is now displayed in their city council building and a local school.