Living in a college dorm and writing short stories all day, every day for five weeks during the summer might not be appealing to some, but for me, it was a dream come true.
From June 29 through Aug. 2, I attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts (PGSA) at Mercyhurst College in Erie for creative writing with an emphasis in fiction.
I was excited to attend the program but also very nervous. For the majority of my summer, I would be in an unfamiliar area, taking classes with strangers in a college setting. I had to stop myself from calling my parents the first night and shouting, "Take me back home! I don't want to challenge myself!"
However, what started out as a blur of homesickness and confusion soon turned into the best experience of my life.
Each day, my teachers urged me to think outside the box - something I was not used to. "What do you want to get out of your work and other authors' work?" they asked me. I also found myself thinking about other art forms in a new way. Before Governor's School, I dreaded attending art shows, dances and other such presentations.
Within the first week, though, the program taught me how other artists crafted their art and let students tour other artists' studios to understand their creative processes. I soon looked forward to the nightly shows and found that inspiration could come from the other art forms. I am astonished at how much more open-minded I am now.
In addition to my concentration, the program encouraged me to experiment
with other art forms. I experimented with several mediums, including ceramics
and film criticism. I felt like I was living in an artists' colony, and I gained
so much more independence living on my own than I would have sitting around my
house for five weeks.
Saying I was sad to leave Mercyhurst is an understatement. I still miss the program and the lessons it taught me.
I urge all rising sophomores and juniors to look into Governor's School for the visual arts, creative writing, theatre, music, and dance. If you attend, the program will inspire a fascination for the arts throughout your life.
I am going to apply for the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts. I am applying for the Visual arts as well as Creative Writing. Do you have any suggestions/tips?
Great! It's a wonderful program, and I have nothing bad to say about it.
I actually conducted presentations at my school for those who wanted to apply, so I'll give you the same suggestions I gave them:
-Apply early. It's a little late for that, but make sure you're not working on it the night before it's due.
-Drive it in, especially because you're sending in artwork. Less chance of it getting lost in the mail.
-Save everything. Save copies of your narrative statements and writing sample, because they won't be returned to you. Your art will, of course.
-Proofread, proofread. Ask someone else, or even more than one person, to make sure you have everything right. Make sure everything is formatted exactly as they ask for it. If it's not, that's a very good reason for them to toss your application away.
-Lastly, relax. They know you're a sophomore/junior and it won't be perfect. I will tell you in advance, since you're applying for CW: they heavily emphasize realistic fiction, so if that's not what you're interested in, I don't know how interested you are in applying anymore.
Good luck! Even if you only make it to semifinals, you should feel accomplished--about 1500 people apply every year, and only 200 are ultimately accepted. You can def put it on a college application if you made semifinals.
Don't worry about it once you send it in, either. I left the semifinals round sure I had written the stupidest story of all time, and I got in.
Let me know how it goes =)