The Personal Essay is central to many types of applications - college, art school and internships. But how do you make yourself stand out? How do you articulate what makes you a good fit for the program you are applying for? Whether you are applying to Harvard, Penn State or an elite academy like PAFA, you will have to write an essay that talks about yourself, your goals and what drives you as a student.

In this two-day, weekend workshop, we will focus on writing a first draft of a personal essay to a college of your choice. Good personal essays use description and imagery to let the reader viscerally experience the story, just as paintings can tell a story. By emphasizing the links between imagery and text, students will learn to write a personal essay that truly stands out from the crowd.

This workshop will help you to:

• Articulate how a specific personal experience shaped you as a person and how it guides your future goals      
• Identify what type of program(s) you want to apply for and why      
• Speak to the mission of the institution for which you are applying      
• Write about yourself to address a specific audience  

You will meet with the teacher and fellow students live on Zoom from 10-11 AM on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the teacher will guide you in how to write a personal essay, and on Sunday students will share their work with each other and receive feedback. Additional readings, resources, and feedback will be available on the learning management system, Canvas.

Learning Objectives:

• Improve your ability to write in the active voice        
• Improve your ability to communicate with a specific audience      
• Improve your ability to write grammatically correct prose

Teacher Information:

Brian Heston is a faculty member in PAFA’s undergraduate liberal arts program with over 20 years of experience as a published writer and teacher. Learn more about him here: https://www.pafa.org/staff/brian-heston.  

Need based scholarships are available, apply here: https://form.jotform.com/202453611644146

Parent/Guardian must fill out Student Information & Release Form BEFORE first day of class.  

International students are welcome! However, the registration process is different to support international payment systems. Please reach out to precollege@pafa.org to register as an international student.

Good storytelling allows us to lose ourselves in different worlds by immersing us so thoroughly in the creative imagination of others that we momentarily suspend our disbelief.

In this two-day, weekend workshop, you will write immersive flash fiction – no more than 500 words! – that uses the best storytelling tools available. Take an idea from your own culture or lived experience, build on a comic or illustration you’re already working on, or compose a creative glimpse into a completely imagined world. Whatever your inspiration, you will learn to help your audience suspend their disbelief through great writing that eliminates clichés, uses active language, and develops compelling, unforgettable visual scenery.

You will meet with the teacher and fellow students live on Zoom from 10-11 AM on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the teacher will guide you in fiction writing, and on Sunday students will share their work with each other and receive feedback. Additional readings, resources, and feedback will be available on the learning management system, Canvas.

Learning Objectives:

• Improve your ability to write descriptively        
• Improve your ability to avoid passive voice      
• Improve your ability to think critically about your own writing

Teacher Information:

Brian Heston is a faculty member in PAFA’s undergraduate liberal arts program with over 20 years of experience as a published writer and teacher. Learn more about him here: https://www.pafa.org/staff/brian-heston.  

Need based scholarships are available, apply here: https://form.jotform.com/202453611644146

Parent/Guardian must fill out Student Information & Release form BEFORE first day of class.

International students are welcome! However, the registration process is different to support international payment systems. Please reach out to precollege@pafa.org to register as an international student.

Persuasive writing is essential in many fields. Researchers, policy makers, advertisers, critics and visual artists all must convince others to adopt their point of view, often in writing. 

For this two-day, weekend workshop, you will practice taking a position and supporting that position in an op-ed. To be persuasive, you cannot just write what you feel  -  you must educate yourself on the issues surrounding a position by finding and employing credible sources and then conveying information in a way that elicits an emotional response from your audience.

To practice this skill, we will focus on an ongoing cultural debate: is graffiti art or vandalism?  How we answer this question has huge ramifications for real people and communities. Writing a clear and persuasive answer will require students to take a position and defend it convincingly. Students are also free to develop an op-ed on another topic they are interested in.

You will meet with the teacher and fellow students live on Zoom from 10-11 AM on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the teacher will guide you in op-ed writing, and on Sunday students will share their work with each other and receive feedback. Additional readings, resources, and feedback will be available on the learning management system, Canvas.

Learning Objectives:

• Improve your ability to differentiate between informed and uninformed opinions       
• Improve your ability to use source material to support a thesis
• Improve your ability to write grammatically correct prose

Teacher Information:

Brian Heston is a faculty member in PAFA’s undergraduate liberal arts program with over 20 years of experience as a published writer and teacher. Learn more about him here: https://www.pafa.org/staff/brian-heston.  

Need based scholarships are availble, apply here: https://form.jotform.com/202453611644146

Parent/Guardian must fill out Student Information & Release Form BEFORE first day of class. 

International students are welcome! However, the registration process is different to support international payment systems. Please reach out to precollege@pafa.org to register as an international student.