There are th ings you le arn from the m ountain air . Like how to pluck constellatio ns from the cloude d riverbed of the sky, or how elk differ from deer differ from moose. FROM IF YOU KNE W THIS PLACE BY GRACE H OMANY ’17
of sp the art annot gra c ll ti s e W surgery. universal e the an surviv c y d o b n uma How the h hands a person’s f o a eir chest. m u a tr n inside th io n u m m Taking co standing om under fr s r a e y We are ts, erm effec the long-t to it ib r presc e ll ti s e w t Ye t f a patien efinition o d e e, th if rl e s e an aft Becau t there is a th g in Is claim forever. ill not live w e w t a aring th IES But still fe L INQUIR RGICA E T O SU ESPONS ENN ’19, R IN M B ’15, UP FRO RIGHT H B M A L A ry from the BY BECC medal in poet
tional winner of a na wards and Writing A rt A ic st Schola
EPILOGUE
the SETTING The William McKinley and Jessie M. Osborne Writing Center at Hathaway Brown School has a central goal: to help girls find their voices. The Center, part of HB’s unique Institute for 21st Century Education, is housed in a large classroom on the second floor of the Upper School, where ideas are nurtured, supported, and brought to life. Everything about the space is inviting. Girls sink in to comfortable couches and chairs, enjoy snacks and lively conversation, and casually yet purposefully immerse themselves in the creative process. Everyone is welcome here; every voice is important. The Center serves all HB students in Grades 9-12 and helps girls with any piece of writing at any stage—from brainstorming topics to final revisions. Students work closely with their peers and can meet one-on-one with the director to explore and refine ideas.
Hathaway Brown’s Osborne Writing Center gives girls the tools and inspiration they need to express themselves through all forms of writing, and encourages them to tell their stories to the world
e v i t a t i r o h t au
VOICE
To learn more about the Osborne Writing Center or the Young Writers and Artists Festival at Hathaway Brown, please visit www.hb.edu/write or contact Center Director Scott Parsons at sparsons@hb.edu or 216.320.8796 ext. 7211. The fourth annual Young Writers and Artists Festival will be held at HB October 30-31, 2015. Register today at HB.edu/write
Girls K–12 Co-ed Early Childhood Shaker Heights, Ohio
The Osborne Writing Center is part of Hathaway Brown’s innovative Institute for 21st Century Education©. Learn more at HB.edu/institute
Osborne Writing Center
main CHARACTERS Writing Center participants are led by director Scott Parsons, who holds an undergraduate degree in English from Kent State University, a Master of Arts in English from the University of Akron, and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Kent State University. He has been teaching high school and college English for 20 years, and students under his tutelage have won hundreds of writing awards, thousands of dollars in scholarship money, and have had their work published in nationally recognized journals. Twice, his students were featured in the annual Best Teen Writing anthology by Scholastic Press. Parsons himself has presented at numerous state and national conferences and has published poems, articles, and essays, most recently contributing a chapter to the book Creative Writing in the Community. With his vision and dedication, the Writing Center has essentially become a virtuoso village, attracting visits from nationally known writers such as bestselling authors Marjane Satrapi, Alexandra Fuller, and Paula McLain, former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, and renowned spoken-word poets Sarah Kay and Jamaal May, to name a few.
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REVIEWS
Students, parents, alumnae, and well known authors happily endorse HB’s Osborne Writing Center and the annual Young Writers and Artists Festival. Fuller versions of the testimonials contained here and several additional endorsements of the program may be found online at
HB.edu/write
The Writing Center entirely
With each visit, I am impressed and inspired
transformed the way I write
by how engaged the young women are with
and edit. As a college freshman,
the craft of writing. Through the Writing
I entered the classrooms and
Center, they are immersed in the writing
lecture halls with typical first-year
process at a level most students wouldn’t
jitters, but I never once doubted
experience until college. Again and again, I
my ability to express myself clearly
see them rise up to high expectations, and
and skillfully through writing.
express themselves through the written
Zoe Harvan HB ’13, WILLIAMS COLLEGE ’17
Hathaway Brown is taking the lead in yet another facet of girls’ education by hosting the Young Writers and Artists Festival. The school’s students and the broader community all benefit from opportunities to learn and expand perspectives.
central NARRATIVE The three main objectives of the Osborne Writing Center are to build community, provide a safe creative space, and foster authentic voices. By nurturing their creative sensibilities, girls discover and develop ways to express themselves with greater artistry and confidence. The Writing Scholar Program, a three-year course of study offered through the Center, offers classroom opportunities as well. Seniors enrolled in the program may choose to enroll in several capstone courses, including Creative Writing, AP English Literature and Composition, and Contemporary World Literature. The Writing Center’s approach clearly works: In addition to having their writing appear in a number of acclaimed publications, HB students have won scores of national and regional medals in the prestigious Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Published for the first time in 2014, the school’s student-run literary journal, Retrospect, received a Superior ranking from the National Council of Teachers of English for its inaugural issue.
Jane Rosenthal Horvitz HB ’70, Past President HB BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The Writers Festival is an event that I looked forward to, like Christmas for my pen and paper. Working over the years with published authors helped me appreciate myself and my classmates, bursting with ideas to share.
culminating SCENE The Young Writers and Artists Festival at HB is your daughter’s invitation to originality. The event, which is open to all Northeast Ohio girls in grades 9-12, takes place each fall. The Festival features lectures and hands-on immersive creative writing and arts workshops facilitated by bestselling and award-winning authors, all designed to ignite a creative spark in the minds of our area’s brightest young women. There’s no better way to pursue your creative passions and develop your craft than by working with an accomplished professional writer or artist in an inclusive setting.
Brady Furlich HB ’15, Kenyon College ’19
word with style, grace and insight. The HB Writing Center is a true cultural treasure. David Giffels
AUTHOR, JOURNALIST, AND ENGLISH PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON
I rush to the Writing Center in the morning, free periods, and after school because it is my absolute favorite place to be. At every college I visit, I ask about their writing center and wonder if it could even compare to HB’s. McKenna Ritter HB ’16
Without a doubt, the Osborne Writing Center made my daughter’s high school education much more precious by giving her a love for writing, plus a chance to be a leader and teacher among her peers. Charles Cowap, FATHER OF Alden Cowap HB ’13, MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ’17
It wasn’t until I came to HB that I realized a teacher’s job is not so much to fill his or her students’ minds with what they believe to be an education, but to allow the student the courage of her own convictions so that she may hunger for knowledge and wisdom and wit and thereby fill her own mind. In that way, HB provides not only an education for those years traditionally given over to learning, but also for a life. A whole, fully realized life. Alexandra Fuller, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR