High School Workshop Welcomes Area Students

On Monday, November 3, the Ashland University English Department held its 29th annual High School Workshop. We sent invitations to 250 different schools, and 18 of these responded, six of which had never attended before. We ended up welcoming a total of 155 students and teachers from these institutions, ranging from Willard to Cuyahoga Valley Christian.

The day began with a gathering in the piano lounge of the Hawkins-Conard Student Center where coffee, juice, and pastries were provided. To start the day off, we gathered in the Hawkins-Conard Auditorium for a brief presentation by Kara Metcalf of the Ashland University Admissions Department who described for the attendees the programs AU offers to its students and something of what life is like on campus. Then we sent our visitors on their way to attend three of the six workshops being offered this year.

The sessions included discussions of Frost’s and Roethke’s poetry, a discussion of what film studies is, a discussion of writing very short pieces, a discussion of the value of the first sentence in a work, and a discussion of Elie Wiesel’s Night. After the workshops, the visiting students and teachers were treated to lunch at convo, and then some attended readings by creative writers Jasmine Dansler and Megan Porhts and some went on a campus tour.

We are proud of this event’s longevity, its continuing ability to bring students and teachers to campus as well as providing members of the department the opportunity to engage in serious discussions with many of the brightest high school students in the area.