The stated goal of the creative writing capstone is to teach students to do all the things working writers do. Informally, the creative writing faculty—Professors Cochrane, Gansworth and McNally—sometimes tell students only half-jokingly that the purpose of the course is to teach them in 15 weeks everything we learned the hard way, through years of painful, even humiliating experience.
One of our program goals recognizes that writers often present their work at readings: “Students will demonstrate the ability to perform their work effectively in public.” Each April, in the Grupp Fireside Lounge, in an annual event we call Senior Reading, our capstone students, after some intense coaching and practice, do just that: each presents a short, carefully chosen and rehearsed example of their best creative work. The reading is videotaped, and later, the creative writing faculty studies and assesses the performance of each student, determining whether she or he has chosen an appropriate selection, introduced it skillfully and read it expressively.
Pictured above: Creative writing major Hanna Etu ’15 presents her work at the annual senior reading.
But over the years, senior reading has become so much more than an occasion for assessment. It is a celebration.
Each student receives an introduction from the faculty mentor who knows him or her best. Students dress up for the occasion and invite their family and friends; there is a reception afterwards. And now we have added a new tradition: the event poster, signed by all our 2015 senior readers, hangs in the common room on the 9th floor of the Tower. It’s one more way we are able to show our deep and enduring pride in the talent and accomplishments of our astonishing students.
Submitted by: Sara Morris, associate vice president, academic affairs
