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Magic
A certain magic happens when coaching combines forces with writing.
When youth are given the agency to approach life and learning through a lens of creativity and possibility, their natural strengths are bolstered and engagement skyrockets.
Bend Your Lens Coaching, LLC was founded on the belief that with an open mind and a shift in perspective, new possibilities come into focus, allowing room for life-changing behavior (for my visual learners, see Figure 1.1!).
Mission
To partner with youth, equipping them with the skills and resources necessary to help them see, then seize their potential as creative problem solvers and changemakers through both creativity coaching and writing programs.
Vision
To create cultures of creativity and possibility in our schools, districts, and communities by championing the creativity of youth.
HISTORY
Bend Your Lens Coaching was founded in 2018 as a sole proprietorship of Tasha McGhie, a professional coach, former social worker, and advocate for the arts. Operating under the DBA of Bend Your Lens Coaching, Tasha McGhie served as a career coach for students around the world with Open Classrooms, an online education and training platform based in Europe that aims to make education and upward mobility accessible to everyone, everywhere.
After working with students both through this platform and as a writing tutor at a local community college, the message was clear: now more than ever, students require immediate support to communicate their ideas and needs in meaningful ways.
Heeding that message, Tasha gathered a small but mighty group of tutors to launch a successful summer writing pilot program amid the global pandemic of 2020. This went on to build in both reach and impact, earning her and her mighty team the TRACE Presidential Award from Tarrant County College for their enterprising efforts.
To offer a more sustainable solution for youth in her community, Bend Your Lens Coaching incorporated as an LLC in March of 2022 and officially created Worth Writing, a separate entity designed to support literacy skills of Tarrant County youth through writing programs.
The Small But Mighty Team of Award-winning Tutors
Jennifer Solomon
Jennifer loves to teach others how to express their voices through writing. Jennifer is passionate about working with as many students as possible, both in English and in Spanish, and she hopes to inspire others to learn a new language (or two, or three!) one day. Outside of work, Jennifer can be found searching for the most delicious guacamole, the comfiest bookstore, and the best walking paths DFW has to offer for her rescue puppy, Karl, and her fiancé, Anthony. She hopes to inspire students to find new confidence in themselves as readers, writers, and individuals and to unleash their power of creativity to cause change in the world.
If she had a superpower, it would be to speak and understand any language to better communicate with ALL people.
Decha Cullen
Decha is our editing aficionado! Revision is her favorite writing stage because it's where writers can turn words into masterpieces. Decha encourages her students to become more at ease with the messiness of the writing process. She believes that reassociating students' relationships with learning, reading, and writing through fun-first activities will positively impact their future successes.
Decha enjoys writing memoirs and personal essays because she likes to find meaning in everyday life. Her favorite hobbies are listening to audiobooks, singing with her son, visiting libraries, and baking tasty, plant-based treats.
If she had a superpower, it would be teleporting anywhere in the world; then returning to the comfort of her own bed at night.
Tasha McGhie
Tasha finds something magical happens when she combines the powers of coaching and writing: students make giant leaps forward. With coaching and writing support, students have reported feeling better equipped to wield the power of communication and creativity in their lives.
When Tasha is not coaching students as they write themselves forward, you can find her playing games of make-believe with her daughter, shuffling to skiffle music, or collecting picture books.
If she had a superpower, it would be to learn any language and its cultural nuances in 3 minutes or less. Zzzap!