Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes - Writing for the Future of the Planet

Living with a changing climate shows us something very important about the craft of writing: that using language well can help save the world. Ecological crisis demands good stories, persuasive rhetoric, and critical ethos, as well as broad scientific literacy and keenly observant mind. In this class, we will explore how the written word can address some of the most pressing issues of our time: climate change, natural disaster, biodiversity loss, and more. In doing so, we will develop key skills for translating the hard facts of our global environmental reality into engaging and persuasive stories and arguments. We will study effective science writing and develop a toolkit of skills to deploy in our own work. We'll also spend time outside, getting up close and personal with natural world, working with a local environmental advocacy group on a Bay Area conservation project, and learning to use language to describe and inform others about our experiences. As a capstone to this course, you will have the opportunity to put these abilities to use by producing a piece of writing for a public audience. This class will ideally facilitate a workshop atmosphere in which we read and discuss work with an eye to improving practical writing skills and pursuing our curiosity about issues of environmental sustainability and the natural world. Application process includes: preliminary application, online application, written responses, work samples (if applicable), teacher recommendations, standardized test scores, transcript, $50 application fee. Need-based financial aid is available with the completion of an additional financial aid application.