This past spring, A Little Beacon Blog was approached by the organization called VISIONS, Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which is a nonprofit vision rehabilitation and social service organization founded in 1926. One of their program participants, Nahari Powell, a graduate of the Beacon City School District who is currently studying Creative Writing and Literature at Manhattanville University, was looking for a paid internship in the literary field. She told VISIONS that she wanted to write for A Little Beacon Blog.

VISIONS purpose is to develop and implement individualized programs to assist people who are blind and visually impaired of all ages to lead independent and active lives, and to educate the public to understand their capabilities and needs. Through this program, VISIONS pairs their program participants with a business, and in this case, is funding Nahari’s paid internship here at the blog. A meeting was arranged, logistics figured out, and Nahari has started writing for A Little Beacon Blog!

Nahari’s Life In Beacon

Campers of New Covenant Camp on Catherine Street may remember Nahari from when she served as a camp counselor in the summers from 2018-2020.

Beacon’s Superintendent Matthew Landahl wrote about her while she attended Rombout Middle School in his Superintendent Update in November 2019 when she was selected a Star Student and remembered for her singing abilities, saying: “Nahari recently won our Star-Spangled Banner singing competition. Nahari's rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner was enjoyed so much by the students that she won the competition with over a 100 point lead.” This tracks, as Nahari tells ALBB that her favorite singer is Ariana Grande.

“Nahari knows no boundaries,” Dr. Landahl continued. “She navigates around the building without assistance, she maintains high honor roll while doing all of her work in braille. In addition to this accomplishment, the faculty selected Nahari as the October Student of the Month. The sky's the limit for this young lady!”

Fast forward to 2026, and Nahari is in college and has secured herself a summer internship pursuing her passion: writing.

Nahari’s RolE at A Little Beacon Blog

Nahari will cover human interest stories here at ALBB. She has gained experience in listening to her first City Council Meeting to get the story on different acts of service and benefits being promoted during meetings. She will be writing about what is going on around us.

“Hi, I’m Nahari. I love creative writing and I’m always finding ways to tell stories. Poetry is one of my favorite forms of writing, and I am interning at A Little Beacon Blog this summer. I’m majoring in Creative Writing in college, and I aspire to one day be a famous author of best-selling books. I wanted to work with A Little Beacon Blog because it was important to me that I expand my craft when it comes to writing. I am excited to learn the ins and outs of online writing and publishing. Go check out some of my work on the Little Beacon Blog this summer!”

Nahari has completed a few writing assignments, where her writing displays both reporting and poetic skills. We are going to publish some of these in a blended first person style so that you the reader can get a hint of life as Nahari experiences it. For example, when she stepped outside yesterday to meet Katie of ALBB at the Beacon Public Library, she could tell that the weather was off because while her phone said it was sunny at 91 degrees, she could not feel the sun on her skin when she stepped out, and it smelled like a campfire. The Canadian wildfire air had just begun blocking the sun. Therefore, her next assignment is to report on the orange tint that is covering Beacon, that some are relating to the eclipse time two years ago.

Katie wrote a poem about that eclipse, called Total Totality. Perhaps Nahari will write a poem about this season’s first Canadian wildfire within her reporting.