The Writers Academy
As the top rated Humanities-centered school in New York, Townsend Harris High School has long viewed writing instruction as central to its mission. While the Humanities experience at THHS offers students opportunities to develop skills in various mediums and creative endeavors, we believe that what unites these pursuits is a need for strong writing. It is central to our newspaper and literary magazine, a key part of what makes SING! a success as a student production, and essential to research courses in multiple departments.
The Writers Academy offers Townsend Harris students a chance to elect to join a special program within the school, one that will train them to be some of the top high school writers in the nation. Our mission is to make Townsend Harris the place that students go to realize their dreams of becoming writers.
Students admitted to the Writers Academy will receive special designations at graduation in one of the following three fields: journalism, creative writing, or dramatic writing (with more fields in development). To earn these designations, students will take courses that are marked as Writers Academy courses, join related extracurricular activities, and participate in professional experiences that count towards the sequence. Writers Academy members will have priority registration for the relevant coursework offered and will be invited to earn service credit as tutors in the Writers Academy.
Think of what LaGuardia High School offers by way of music and the arts. We want Townsend Harris to be the premiere high school for writers.
All Townsend Harris students are eligible to join the Writers Academy Program. They can begin their work by taking Writing Process as freshmen and can elect to join the following sequences:
Students admitted to the Writers Academy will receive special designations at graduation in one of the following three fields: journalism, creative writing, or dramatic writing (with more fields in development). To earn these designations, students will take courses that are marked as Writers Academy courses, join related extracurricular activities, and participate in professional experiences that count towards the sequence. Writers Academy members will have priority registration for the relevant coursework offered and will be invited to earn service credit as tutors in the Writers Academy.
Think of what LaGuardia High School offers by way of music and the arts. We want Townsend Harris to be the premiere high school for writers.
All Townsend Harris students are eligible to join the Writers Academy Program. They can begin their work by taking Writing Process as freshmen and can elect to join the following sequences:
- The Creative Writing Program
- The Journalism Program
- The Theater Writing Program
The Academy’s Writing Center will help guide students in choosing a program, maintaining their standing in the program, and connecting them to professional opportunities.In our course catalog, students will see courses marked as a THHSWA Course. If they are interested in being part of these sequences, they can register for these courses.
Townsend Harris has always prioritized writing by having freshmen take an extra English course focused on composition. By senior year, all students write at the college level in Queens College courses and present researched-based thesis papers as their culminating humanities experience. Outside of class, our publications have earned wide and varied recognition for their more than three decades of excellence in showcasing outstanding student writing. The Writers Academy is our way of bringing this commitment to the next level.
Simply put, if you want to be a journalist, a novelist, a screenwriter, a playwright, or a researcher, our goal is to make Townsend Harris the place that launches you on that lifelong path. Moreover, we believe that no matter what career path you take, learning how to become an eloquent and effective writer will help you. In a time where people across the world are allowing artificial intelligence to do the difficult work of writing for them, the Writers Academy exists to make a statement: THHS will forever remain a place that views training in the art of writing as a profound necessity for the development of all students.
The Writers Academy Writing Center
Upperclassmen editors and writers in the Writers Academy will be invited to hold tutoring hours where they will be able to work with other students on major writing pieces they have been assigned in their THHS courses. These tutors will be trained during the summer workshop and will have additional training at specified times throughout the school year.
We will work with teachers to encourage students to sign up for tutoring hours, and all students who attend a session with one of our tutors will contact the teacher of the student to let them know that a Writing Center tutor has read their writing. Teachers can choose to give extra credit for students attending the session, as the tutoring session will ensure that the student’s writing is done (or heavily in progress) in advance of a deadline (whereas students may save too much of the work for the last minute otherwise).
All Writing Center tutors receive service credit for their tutoring hours.
We will work with teachers to encourage students to sign up for tutoring hours, and all students who attend a session with one of our tutors will contact the teacher of the student to let them know that a Writing Center tutor has read their writing. Teachers can choose to give extra credit for students attending the session, as the tutoring session will ensure that the student’s writing is done (or heavily in progress) in advance of a deadline (whereas students may save too much of the work for the last minute otherwise).
All Writing Center tutors receive service credit for their tutoring hours.
