Wellesley Pre-College Honors Immersion: Writing Workshops

ABOUT HONORS IMMERSION PROGRAM:

Push your academic boundaries by taking two undergraduate courses alongside Wellesley students in our four-week residential program. Includes a writing class and a credit bearing elective chosen from Wellesley's most popular courses.

Meet motivated and intellectually curious young women from around the globe and immerse yourself in the academic, social, and intellectual opportunities that cannot be found in any high school program. Small class sizes allow for individual attention from our experienced team of college faculty. As part of the program all students will have a chance to hear from Wellesley Admissions staff. This program is for students who want a credit-bearing, rigorous, academically challenging summer experience.

AVAILABLE WRITING WORKSHOPS:

Creating New Worlds: Analyzing Sci-Fi/Fantasy for a Better Future

In this class, you will be a world builder. How can you create/imagine new possibilities for ourselves and others through your writing? What kinds of futures have you been made aware of through recent science fiction/fantasy films, and how can you use your analyses of the films to affect the way people see the world? By studying recent fantasy films, you will find inspiration for your own constructions of the future. While practicing the basics of expository writing (developing ideas, polishing our prose, making clear arguments, and organizing paragraphs), you will read other writers’ published work about how to make our world better. But it will be your words that push the boundaries of what others believe is possible. Join me in suspending disbelief and believing in your power to change the world.

Sharks in the Media

Sharks have inhabited the world’s oceans for over 400 million years. While their biology and evolutionary history is a story of triumph, the portrayal of sharks in various forms of media is largely negative, focusing on sharks as monsters and “man-eaters”, and often times is biologically inaccurate. These representations are one of several factors that have led to the decline of shark populations worldwide. This course will enable students to understand shark biology and evaluate the accuracy of the portrayal of sharks through various forms of writing, including an exploratory essay, an editorial, a popular press article, and a research paper. Students will read and discuss popular and scientific articles on shark biology and literary excerpts to develop ideas for writing assignments, share their writing through peer review, and respond to constructive criticism to develop their writing skills and gain a better understanding of this impressive group of animals.

What's College For?

As college in the US becomes increasingly expensive and competitive, it’s worth asking what role institutions of higher education play in our society. Do they promote equity and equality? Do they transform or preserve the status quo? Do we prioritize their value as a private or as a public good, that is, as something that benefits the individual, or as something that the public invests in for some broader social goal? Students will read and write about the work of political theorists and educators in order to consider what the political and social mission of the university should be. We will also investigate the business of higher education, examining what happens when a college’s financial considerations might conflict with its educational mission. Other topics we’ll explore include the public financing of college, student debt, practices of for-profit universities, and the size of college endowments.