Arts Magazine Is Success Story for Jordan High

Miracles do happen, English teacher Marie Tollstrup believes.

Just look at Jordan High School in Long Beach, where nearly a third of the students live in poverty and test scores are among the lowest in the district. Despite the odds, Jordan has achieved national acclaim in literary circles.

The recipient of this recognition is Stylus, a glossy student-produced arts magazine that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Tollstrup, the magazine’s adviser and founder, has watched Stylus grow into a well-designed, well-written 48-page glossy book filled with essays, short stories, photographs, art and poems.

Over the years, Stylus has won dozens of awards, including one of the most prestigious in high school publications, the 1993 Highest Award from the National Council of Teachers of English. The award goes to the top 1% of the nearly 900 competing U.S. high school literary and art magazines.

In Tollstrup’s classroom earlier this year, seniors Brian Asis and Sarah Gutknecht hunched over drawings they were perfecting for publication in Stylus ’94. Awards and plaques decorate the bulletin boards.

Before meeting Tollstrup, Sarah said, she was afraid to show people her work. “But (Tollstrup) encouraged me and made me feel good about my work. She does that for everybody,” she said.

Tollstrup admitted, however, that she became involved in the literary effort almost by accident. “The creative writing class needed a teacher and no one wanted to teach it, so I thought I’d try it,” she said. Later, she created Stylus as an outlet for her students’ work.

The magazine carries no advertising. Donors provide Tollstrup with the $5,000 she needs to publish.

“She’s the motivator; she’s so dedicated,” said Dick Van Der Laan, spokesman for the Long Beach school district. “She probably will shoot me for saying this,” he said, lowering his voice to a whisper, “but she’s a former nun.”

Tollstrup, 57, in fact makes no secret of her former life in the convent or of her love of the magazine and the students who put it out. “I went to the convent to save souls,” she said. “And then I realized I could save as many being a lay person.

“I let students know they can write. I tell them I think they can be successful if they try. And they stick with me because I believe in them. I believe everyone can learn to be a better writer.”

Tollstrup grew up on a farm in rural Wisconsin. At 14, she entered a convent school with the intention of joining a teaching order. After teaching in high schools in affluent as well as poor sections of Chicago, she left the convent in 1968 and moved west to be closer to her family.

She joined the Jordan staff 26 years ago. “There have been huge, vast changes,” she said. The school enrollment, which was predominantly white then, is now 34% Latino, 31% black, 10% Asian and 17% white.

Jordan’s diverse student population is precisely what makes the literary magazine so successful, officials said.