Plain Brown Wrapper (PBW) is a student-run magazine at Kennedy advised by language arts teacher Steve Tolly. Participants meet every Wednesday in room 70 after school from 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Senior Srinidhi Kompella is the student organizer of PBW, organizing articles and the overall plan for the magazine. She and Tolly work together to create a final product to be distributed at the end of the year.
“The magazine has existed for quite a while at Kennedy,” Kompella. “It’s a staple here, there are actually archives of the magazine from the late 1990s. It has existed for a very long time. During COVID the club stopped due to obvious reasons.”
The club had shut down production during COVID-19, but Kompella was determined to get it back up and running. The club resumed in second semester of the 2023-2024 school year.
“I tried to help reinitiate the club as a part of my Girl Scout Golden Award project,” Kompella said. “I have always loved creative writing and I didn’t want to start fresh, I wanted to take something that already existed that I loved and make it into something that was a different level of quality.
To earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, teens must complete a project that has a positive impact on the community.
“When I was given the opportunity to create my own project, I was thinking about different things within school that I loved. I had realized that this club already existed based on creative writing,” Kompella said.
While Kompella is in charge of PBW’s magazine organization, she needed help with logistics like publishing and securing funds.
“Plain Brown Wrapper has been around since I got to Kennedy,” Tolly said. “I got into it because I have taken an interest in writing and helping kids become better writers.”
Tolly does not take credit for the work his advisees put out, placing all credit on the kids.
“The goal this year is to produce a literary magazine that will take two competitions at a couple different events,” Tolly said. “The other thing they are doing is a fall pamphlet to encourage kids to write. I am purely an advisor, I am there just to help kids do work.”
