How the summer runs
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June — Read & meet. Pick up the book. Join a discussion circle of about ten students. Form a team if you want one.
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July — Pick a track. Choose one of four areas — Community Health, Personal Health, Business, or Mental Health. Match with a mentor. Sketch your idea.
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August — Write & submit. Draft, revise, and submit a paper making the case for your idea, alone or with a team, by August 21.
A Summer 2026 Chicago campaign for high school students.
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Read. Discuss. Invent.
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Inspired by 2200: A Story For The Times, Write The Future is a ten-week summer program that invites Chicago teens — grades 9 through 12 — to imagine their city's future on the page. Students read the book, gather in weekly discussion circles, develop one big idea for a healthier Chicago, and write a paper making their case. The strongest papers earn cash prizes at a public showcase in late August.
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Why now?
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Many Chicago teens have ideas about their neighborhoods, their bodies, and their futures, but they have learned to keep those ideas to themselves because they expect to be ridiculed. Write The Future is built to do the opposite. Our circles run on one rule — no idea gets ridiculed — and our facilitators are trained to redirect any sneer or eyeroll on the spot. The point is not to argue ideas into rubble. The point is to help young people put an idea into the room and learn to defend it on the page.
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Who it's for?
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Chicago high schoolers in grades 9 through 12. You don't need to be a writer. You don't need an idea on day one. You don't need to already know what you think. You do need to show up, listen to other people's ideas without rolling your eyes, and try out one of your own.
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Get in touch
Want to enroll your student, sponsor a piece of the program, mentor a team, host a discussion circle, or partner with us another way? We would love to hear from you.
Email us at writethefuturechi@gmail.com.