Over the last decade celebrations of student writing (CSWs) have been instituted at universities across the nation as a public way to celebrate students' voices, identities, and literacies. Often touted as a way to gain campus-wide recognition and support for first-year composition courses, this event also purportedly fosters agency and authority for the students who participate. Scholars agree that CSWs, and similar events, provide an excellent opportunity for students to present their work to a real audience within a real rhetorical situation; however, we wanted to know if student-participants believed they learned something from participating in the event. Despite the popularity of these celebrations, no published research exists of students' responses to the event. Thus, this article begins the conversation by sharing findings of a small mixed-methods study, comprised of twenty-three interviews and forty-two surveys, of students whose classes participated in the 2011 CSW at the University of New Mexico. This article shares our results and recommendations for future CSW research.