Mark Harker Introduction My proposal is to start a creative writing camp that will run during summer school at Maine

South High School for children age 14-18. I believe this camp is an important project that could greatly help those who have an active interest in creative writing. I have sketched out a preliminary plan which I will outline below. I recommend starting an investigative panel to more fully determine the costs and benefits of establishing such a program. Problem The school already has remedial programs during the summer as well as art programs. They do not however have any creative writing programs which are not focused on remedial education. The problem is that in many ways our current English system as taught in high school is not actually intended to produce creative writers, but is more focused on giving the majority of students the skills they need to succeed in a work environment. This is not necessarily entirely a bad thing as most students in high school correspondingly do not have an interest in creative writing, and will not go down that career path. However, for those who have an early interest in the field, students often feel frustrated that they are not learning the actual conventions of how a story fits together. Also many students are bored during the summer because they have nothing to do. In my experience many children from Park Ridge go to a camp in lower Wisconsin for a creative arts camp that focuses on all areas of the arts. Starting this program would keep many children from having to go out of state in order to go where many of their friends go. Solution. I believe establishing a summer program focused on creative writing would greatly benefit the children of Park Ridge. These camps are already run in several areas across the nation, and in lower Wisconsin, and they have been successful in engaging childrens interest. I believe it keeps children from seeing school as a place where they are forced to learn into a place where they are encouraged to develop their interests. For my camp I envision focusing mainly around genre fiction in Sci-fi, Fantasy, and YA . These are the subjects that in my experience 14-18 yr olds are actually interested in. I have yet to meet a 14 yr old genuinely excited over the latest Jonathan Franzen novel thus I have excluded focusing on literary fiction. I believe such a program could be implemented as an addition to the summer school program with minimal complexity. This course is not a punishment but would be intended for those who are genuinely interested in the material. The school facilities are already open and this would highly limit the cost of the program since Maine South is already open in the summer. This camp revolves around a mix of small and large groups. Depending on how many students enroll I would like to separate the students into groups of five or six students, which would then work on stories together over the two week period of the camp. The camp would meet during the hours of 9 am to 2 pm. I wish during the one hour lunch break to have a group meeting in the cafeteria to conduct a panel which consists of various creative professionals who are active in their field. I envision this camp costing around 150 dollars during the course of the camp. This assumes that we are able to use the school facilities at the same rate as the rest of the summer school remedial programs. The 150 dollars per student could cover the

lunch costs and guest booking fees for the lunchtime program. Public transportation is available during the morning using the PACE bus routes 290 and 291.

Objectives I am seeking to establish a creative writing camp that will run during the summer period and provide an opportunity for students to get valuable input on their writing techniques. I am seeking to give students knowledge, confidence, as well as give them a valuable summer experience that they will remember for years. This proposal is to set up a team to deal with proposing to the school board.

Schedule This program would be run during the summer over a two week period. I currently envision the beginning of June. The program could possibly repeat if enough people show interest, drawing out the program for the teacher to a full month. Planning would probably need to begin in late January or Febuary in order to properly plan everything by summer and give time to book panel guests. Conclusion This is a realistic plan that will enable many young students to explore their creative side. It gives students a productive place to go during the summer when they are otherwise sitting at home bored. I believe this is a worthy proposal for consideration.