On May 7, select alumni from my past Writer’s Craft classes gathered together to talk to current Mentor students about how elective English helped them in their post-secondary educations and careers. Some alumni were still in university; others were already engaged in practicing business, marketing, professional writing, teaching, and several other worthy vocations.
All had this to say: take Writer’s Craft. It broadens your view of the world, and your place in it, in more ways than you could possibly imagine.
Ashley Williamson, a current PhD student at the University of Toronto, reminded all of us that writing teaches us how to think; too often we are focused on outcomes and grades rather than process work, and creative writing is, at its core, testing out ideas and thought processes. Storytelling is necessary in all types of jobs, and learning how to think through a problem can be developed and heightened by the practice of creative writing.
Tiah Khuu, the oldest of the alumni, runs his own publishing and photography studio, Fook; he claims his education at OCAD, and starting his own business, were initial ideas he conceived in Writer’s Craft, based on the mandated workshop classes in the course. “In OCAD, we would always critique each others’ work, but some students”, he said, “crumbled far too easily under criticism. Writer’s Craft taught me how to be tough, in an already tough line of work. That same bravery and persistence fueled me in starting my own business.”
Alexander Johnson is currently finishing his degree in Professional Writing at York University, and hopes to be a sports writer in the future; he has published articles in the university’s newspaper and mentioned that “the way I learned to structure my writing in this course was so valuable to me. It’s so easy to just throw words on the page and say ‘done’. But writing as a profession is so much more than that, it has to be. Learning that in high school gave me a leg up in university.”
Graeme Hoare completed his education at Queen’s University and has been teaching at Mentor College for the past 3 years. He said that he learned “how to really narrow down my own writing style and voice; this course allows you to really focus on the type of writing that interests you, rather than simply what techniques are taught, and what pieces are read and analyzed. Having a course that allows you that freedom is very liberating, and helps you to really develop your own talents on your own time.”
Arjun Ram (2018 grad), currently studying at the University of Saskatchewan, and awaiting his acceptance into Canada’s armed forces, laughingly said that “this course saved me in first year university countless times! The way Ms. Saplys teaches you to write an essay is gruelling at first, because more is expected of you. But in first year university, when all of my peers were lost, or failing, I was pulling A’s. She taught us how to write real university-level papers, and I thanked her for it, silently and in my head, many times over.”
Manuela Posada Wang (2018 grad), an English student at the University of Toronto St. George Campus, hopes to teach English herself one day, and become a writer. She mentioned that “this course really helped to develop my creative ability. The ISU, in particular, forced me to focus on going deeper into my characters, developing them to become real people, with real problems. The reality that this brought to my work is something that I always strive for now, and I didn’t even know that I was missing it before.”
Eric Meandro (2018 grad), a current student at McMaster’s business and humanities program, is planning on pursuing a career in finance and possibly real estate. He emphasized “the importance of the editing process. I brought a draft of a story that I thought was pretty good to Ms. Saplys; when we went over it together, it was dripping in red ink, but I could easily see, by the end of our conversation, how it needed to change, and all the flaws I hadn’t seen before. So many types of work require that kind of brutal and honest editing. This course taught me never to give up and to always reach for the best outcome possible.”
All students – old, new, and current alike – learned a great deal that afternoon. As all started to disperse, more than one alumnus was heard saying: “Just take the course. I promise you, you won’t regret it”, or “You’ll thank yourself at the end of high school, you’ll see.” In a world where the arts, as a discipline of study, seem to be slowly disappearing, these types of symposiums are so crucial to keeping creativity alive. Creative writing, more than anything else, teaches you how to play with language, as a malleable substance rather than a stiff and static one. If we are to continue to learn, grow, and develop as responsible human beings in the 21st century, we need courses like these to remind us to think outside of the box. Otherwise, we may never get out of it.
Elena Saplys
English Teacher
High School Division
Pictured (from left): Alexander Johnson, Manuela Posada-Wang, Eric Meandro, Graeme Hoare, Ashley Willamson
