A 15 year-old girl is forced to leave her homeland because of ethnic hatred and arrives in New York. Her family has lost everything and must start from scratch. Three years later she graduates from high school and has a chance for a college scholarship which will educate her and allow her to earn a good living that will help her parents (her father works as a porter).
On her scholarship application she writes about how she transformed personal bitterness into determination. She begins this way: ”A man’s soul is harder than a rock.”
Help her finish her application:
(This prompt is from a new book I am writing to help people find their writer’s voice. I welcome your comments and your writing. Please share with us.)

A man is buried to his neck at the bottom of a 15-foot hole as a result of a construction accident. He is not seriously hurt in the initial collapse of earth that surrounds him. But every time his lungs expand, then contract, more dirt fills in around him, tightening around his stocky frame ”like a slowly coiling boa constrictor,” a newspaper reports. It is a race against time, but after eight hours the rescuers lift him to satefy although he is nearly buried alive three times during the emotionally wrenching effort.
Afterward, you interview the man and ask him what was going on in his mind all the while. You want to know what kept him going. This is what he answers:
(This prompt is from a new book I am writing to help people find their writer’s voice. I welcome your comments on the prompt above — does it take you to a new place in your writing? Share with us.)

What is your most valuable treasure? Why is it so?
You are welcome to share your writing with us.
(From A Book of Questions by Bill Zimmerman)

Someone who loves you dearly has bought you a faraway star. It is yours to name, and yours to wish on. The wish will come true, too. What do you call your own star? What is your special wish?
Please share your thoughts with us.
(Question taken from Idea Catcher for Kids: An Inspiring Journal for Young Writers by Bill Zimmerman)