On Tuesday night approximately one hundred people gathered together at IEW’s Bixby campus for an extra special evening. They were there to celebrate IEW’s twenty-fifth birthday. Flying in from all across the country, IEW personnel, support staff, and friends came together to break bread, savor some delicious birthday cake, and celebrate IEW, which has its roots traveling all the way back to 1989.
Following the meal, the gathering moved into the studio where Andrew Pudewa, founder and director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, delivered an entertaining and informative retrospective about the company, describing its beginnings and plotting its providential trajectory. Joining the studio audience were several hundred other friends who live-streamed the event. Interspersed throughout the presentation, various people who have played a meaningful part in IEW’s story shared their thoughts about Andrew and IEW. Those speakers included Leigh Bortins of Classical Conversations, Dr. James Webster, developer of Structure and Style®️, Adam and Missy Andrews of the Center for Lit, Andrew Kern of the Circe Institute, Lee Binz, the Home Scholar, Sarah Mackenzie of Read-Aloud Revival, Pam Barnhill of The Morning Basket, Kim Cromer of NCFCA, and Kristi Clover from The Simply Joyful podcast.
It was an evening filled with happy reminiscences, friends meeting face to face for the first (or the fiftieth) time, and of course, fabulous food. But while the reflections were meaningful and enjoyable, perhaps the best part of the evening was when vision was turned from reflection of the past to excitement for the future when Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker announced the long-awaited and much-anticipated new product: Structure and Style for Students.
Structure and Style for Students, video-based courses, will be offered for three levels: Level A (grades 3–5), Level B (grades 6–8) and Level C (high school). Each level will have two programs, allowing for two continuous years of study per level. And even better, purchasers will be able to select whether they want to receive DVDs to access the video content or to utilize “forever streaming” instead. “Forever streaming” means that the purchaser never loses access to the streaming. Each year offers twenty-four weeks of lessons, allowing plenty of time for adding in additional literature, scheduling field trips, or accommodating co-op schedules.
We are so incredibly excited for IEW’s future. Structure and Style for Students is a big part of the reason why. As Andrew affirms, “This is the best thing we have ever done. It is the most comprehensive. It is the most certain.” And now that it’s officially here, we are so delighted to share it with you. In upcoming blog posts we will offer more information about Structure and Style for Students, but in the meantime you can also check out this link to learn more.
The evening was certainly a nostalgic and joyous event, but as always IEW is looking forward. And the future has never looked so bright.
IEW® and Structure and Style® are registered trademarks of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, L.L.C.
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Jennifer Mauser has always loved reading and writing and received a B.A. in English from the University of Kansas in 1991. Once she and her husband had children, they decided to homeschool, and she put all her training to use in the home. In addition to homeschooling her children, Jennifer teaches IEW classes out of her home, coaches budding writers via email, and tutors students who struggle with dyslexia. |
