Johnson Liu

Mr. Dunbar teaches the drama class at the THHS Writers Academy Summer Writing Retreat.

Students arrived at Townsend Harris this week to attend summer programs for the newly launched “Writers Academy.” With course offerings related to creative writing, drama, and journalism to choose from, students from the class of 2024 to the class of 2027 signed up beginning late last month, with some joining multiple programs. In addition, students were able to sign up for a filmmaking workshop that began yesterday.

Having launched earlier this year, the Writers Academy offers students a chance to focus on a specific kind of writing throughout their years at THHS, a humanities-centered school. Newly admitted freshmen can begin their sequence of studies by joining these summer programs and will be able to continue developing their writing skills through courses, extracurriculars, and special activities that will occur throughout their high school career. 

Rising freshman Mahi Sehgal will be taking part in both the journalism and creative writing program. “I love writing,” Mahi said, “I think that joining [the Summer Writing program] will be beneficial.”

Teachers involved in the Writers Academy are running the programs. English teacher Ryan Dunbar and ISS teacher Kevin Schwab are running the drama sessions, which connect to the Nightingale Theatre Company extracurricular.  Mr. Dunbar said he was encouraged by the work his freshmen are doing only a day in and thought this summer program would help students find a place for themselves at THHS. 

“All three of these clubs that we are talking about have so many different directions you could take them,” Mr. Dunbar said, discussing the programs in the Writers Academy. “With theater, you can be onstage or behind the scenes. With The Starling Press, you can be working on collecting poetry or writing short stories. For journalism, you could be working on the multimedia side or you could be working on more traditional journalism. So whatever it is, you learn about it and then find your place and passion.” 

Multiple students spoke to The Classic about their reasons for joining the program. The rationales included parental advice, wanting to improve writing skills, and students not having much to do over the summer. Others said they were looking to get a sense of what THHS is like.

“I want to become used to this school,” said rising freshman Mirabelle Miketa-Garcia. “I don’t want to be jump-scared when I first come in.” Mirabelle also said that she was enticed by the program’s focus on writing. “I’m a humanities person and would like to improve my work and get it published,” she said.

Rising freshman Nana-Ama Kwarteng said, “I wanted to experience high school before it starts because I have never been to a public school before.”   

Since the summer of 2021, THHS has been offering summer enrichment programs. This year, there are fewer courses available than usual. According to Assistant Principal of Organization Ellen Fee, this is mainly a matter of budgeting. The DOE originally funded “Summer Rising” programs, but that was related to the DOE’s push to reopen after the pandemic closed schools. Two years later, the DOE is funding courses that students would need to take because they failed a course during the school year. As a result, now any enrichment session must come entirely out of each school’s budget.  

“We had to take money that we were going to use for the regular school year [to fund these summer programs],” Ms. Fee said. The school administration chose these programs in particular, according to Ms. Fee, because they connect to curricular and extracurricular offerings available during the regular school year, allowing students to get started over the summer and continue in the fall. 

Rising freshman Jazmine Chiquito said she is taking part in the summer program partly because she’ll be able to continue with the related extracurricular activities in the fall. “I plan to join this club in the coming year because it is right up my alley, and I know I will have a good time doing it,” she said.

Ms. Fee also said that the programs that are running had been well-attended in past summers, and some programs from previous years had fewer student signups. Some physical education options that were available in the past can’t run, for example, because THHS is a summer school site where facilities like the gymnasium are in use for much of the day.

Though there are fewer overall classes, students can take more than one course, as most of the programs run on different days. This presents students with the opportunity to attend a class on each day of the week, if interested. 

“Even practicing [writing] a little bit helps you get more used to it,” said rising freshman Sayemah Nadi. 

Summer sessions will run until the second week of August, with filmmaking meeting every Monday, journalism meeting Tuesdays and Wednesdays, drama meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays, and creative writing meeting Thursdays and Fridays.

Additional reporting by Emmie Elizabeth Krikheli