Writing camps/classes for high schooler?

[Anonymous]

I just posted this on the Camps forum, but it seems like most of the info there is for much younger kids. Does anyone have any experience with a good creative writing camp/seminar/class for summer? My DS is 16 and loves to write, but the one I found - NVWP at George Mason - seems to skew much younger even though it says it goes through 12th grade. I think he would be more comfortable with older teens. Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I've always wondered about the Northern Virginia Writing project.... I hope someone can provide a review of the program.

[Anonymous]

We like Writopia. Have 3 different instructors/teachers during this school year, but all were great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We like Writopia. Have 3 different instructors/teachers during this school year, but all were great.

+1 on Writopia. My DD was at the Falls Church location last summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've always wondered about the Northern Virginia Writing project.... I hope someone can provide a review of the program.

Our daughter (now 14) has done the Northern Va. Writing Project student summer camp for the past three years; not doing it this year only because of another commitment or she'd be doing it again....She has loved it and enjoyed the instructors very much. The kids do different workshops each day and have writing prompts each day and more.

OP, check it out online. Lots of detail on their web site. See if it's what your teen would like.
It's run by George Mason University and the camp itself is known as the Student Summer Institute or SSI. Here's the web site:
http://nvwp.org/youngwriters/ssi/

The web site as of today shows that they are still accepting applications for the camp, which is a day camp the weeks of July 6-17 this year at the GMU campus. My daughter could never make the second week of camp but SSI let her do just the first week (when most of the writing is done, with the second week spent more on editing) so they are very flexible and have always been very nice as well. My daughter enjoys writing anyway but the camp (and the NVWP's Young Writers Project which does half-day, one-off Saturday workshops during the school year) have done a lot to make her like it even more!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just posted this on the Camps forum, but it seems like most of the info there is for much younger kids. Does anyone have any experience with a good creative writing camp/seminar/class for summer? My DS is 16 and loves to write, but the one I found - NVWP at George Mason - seems to skew much younger even though it says it goes through 12th grade. I think he would be more comfortable with older teens. Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

I'm the PP -- not sure why it seems to skew younger to you but I saw a lot of older teens at the summer camp these past three years. I would phone up the folks who run it and just ask things like how many teens your kid's age are attending this year, etc. They'll be cool with that. I do know that the older kids get an option overnight as well, but not sure if it applies to only the seniors....

If your teen loves to write so much that she does it on her own, is she aware of NANOWRIMO, or National Novel Writing Month? They have a youth and teen program:

http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

Kids write their own novel in a month (really they just commit to WRITE whatever they can, setting their own word goal. Full novel not really expected and nobody's judging and your kid never has to put anything online -- this is mostly about encouragement from like-minded lovers of writing.) My kid loves this to bits and has found a nice (and well monitored) online community of other kids and teens who write and read as much as she does. Check it out. There is also a "Camp Nanowrimo" site for summer writing inspiration.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks so much for these wonderful suggestions! I'll check them all out.

[Anonymous]

Our kids are in FCPS and I feel like they have become decent writers in various fiction styles but have not had enought exposure to writing a classic research paper, similar to what they will write in college. Perhaps next year our high schooler will experience this in AP classes, but those seem like all fact memorization and shorter DBQs from what I've heard.

Do any of these programs offer a research type of seminar?

I really wish FCPS would drop 1 semester of PE and replace it with a research writing seminar sophomore year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are in FCPS and I feel like they have become decent writers in various fiction styles but have not had enought exposure to writing a classic research paper, similar to what they will write in college. Perhaps next year our high schooler will experience this in AP classes, but those seem like all fact memorization and shorter DBQs from what I've heard.

Do any of these programs offer a research type of seminar?

I really wish FCPS would drop 1 semester of PE and replace it with a research writing seminar sophomore year.

Wish FCPS would take you up on the idea of a research writing seminar. Sophomore year would be a good time for it too.

The Student Summer Institute used to have a workshop that focused on helping older teens prep for college; however, I don't think it was research writing but more aimed at college application essays--? If GMU knows families want a research seminar for high school aged students, they might create one. I'd ask the Northern Virginia Writing Project and if they don't have one, they might be able to direct you to one.

The IB program in FCPS has a strong focus on writing skills. IB expects a lot of writing across all subjects. Also, IB diploma students have to do an Extended Essay on a topic of their choosing which is a 4,000-word research paper. Our kid will start at an IB high school in the fall and we placed her there in part because we knew families where the kids (and the parents) felt that IB prepared them well for college-level writing demands, both in terms of length and content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are in FCPS and I feel like they have become decent writers in various fiction styles but have not had enought exposure to writing a classic research paper, similar to what they will write in college. Perhaps next year our high schooler will experience this in AP classes, but those seem like all fact memorization and shorter DBQs from what I've heard.

Do any of these programs offer a research type of seminar?

I really wish FCPS would drop 1 semester of PE and replace it with a research writing seminar sophomore year.

I'm sure most high school students would rather have PE than a writing seminar class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are in FCPS and I feel like they have become decent writers in various fiction styles but have not had enought exposure to writing a classic research paper, similar to what they will write in college. Perhaps next year our high schooler will experience this in AP classes, but those seem like all fact memorization and shorter DBQs from what I've heard.

Do any of these programs offer a research type of seminar?

I really wish FCPS would drop 1 semester of PE and replace it with a research writing seminar sophomore year.

I'm sure most high school students would rather have PE than a writing seminar class.

Not my kids - no way. They all feel PE is the biggest waste of time ever (totally agree with them, by the way), especially when it prevents them from taking an elective they're interested in. They love writing for fun and would love the chance to take a creative writing class at school.

[Anonymous]

Check out the Writers Center, headquartered in Bethesda, but offers classes around the region.

[Anonymous]

Iowa Young Writers Workshop is really great. The sessions are two weeks long.

[Anonymous]

Writing camps? Yuck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Iowa Young Writers Workshop is really great. The sessions are two weeks long.

Would also highly recommend the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop: https://www.kenyonreview.org/workshops/young-writers/