100 Story Star: Monique Nair
With stories, ideas (and an occasional unicorn) flying about thick and fast, things can get chaotic in the Building.
Luckily, Monique Nair with her quiet confidence is just what we need to rein in the madness!
An aspiring writer, Monique started with us as an intern in April to support our End of the Financial Year fundraising campaign. But her creativity and calm competence were too much for us to let go. So we we brought her on board to support our Early Harvest program.
Every Saturday through Term 3, Monique travelled to Dandenong to mentor the young Early Harvest editors as they put together The Sound Of The Dark, the most entertaining ‘creepy horror’ anthology that money can buy.
The Sound of the Dark launches on 20 November.
This is how Monique describes her experience of working at 100 Story Building.
As a Creative Writing student at RMIT, I was sifting through the internship opportunities in my inbox early this year. Most of them were marketing / communications based: all spreadsheets and paper runs, selling products I didn’t really care about.
Then 100 Story Building popped up in my inbox. It was an internship opportunity to support their End of the Year Fundraising Campaign in June. I looked over the position and the organisation and was sold. The values of 100 Story Building resonated with me and I wanted to be a part of their work.
As a young aspiring writer from a diverse background, I understand the value of stories, creativity and literacy skills, and believe in supporting young people from any background or social group to share their stories and hone their creative skills.
I was incredibly lucky to land the internship. Working on their EOFY campaign gave me an incredible insight into the behind the scenes planning and work that goes into maintaining this place and ultimately supporting young creatives.
However, that was not the end of my association with the organisation.
Very soon, I started working with the Early Harvest Editorial Program. It has been a great hands-on opportunity to directly encourage the creativity and critical thinking of a bright bunch of Grade 6s in Dandenong.
Seeing and engaging with the ideas and work of children has been one of the most memorable experiences for me. In a workshop I participated in during the first internship and then again in Early Harvest, I have loved the chance to bounce ideas off children. It really made me reflect on the creative process, the potential of imagination and the possibilities of creativity.
It has been inspiring to be surrounded by 100 Story Building’s warm and creative team and engage with the bright, growing and imaginative minds of young people.
I would definitely recommend this to others who want to support marginalised young people and are interested in the business of imagination harvesting.
The Sound of the Dark launches on 20 November. Preorder your copy today to claim your FREE limited edition spooky zine by one of The Sound of the Dark editors.