High School Students
Start your Dickens journey in High School!
The Dickens Day of Writing
The Dickens Day of Writing is both a writing retreat and a writing competition designed to support junior and senior high school students from the Monterey Bay Area and beyond in their futures as college students and professionals. By reflecting on a short essay by Charles Dickens, the students will reinforce skills learned in the classroom, such as critical reading, analytical reasoning, argumentative writing, creative production, and cultural history, to prepare them for life beyond high school.
All Dickens Day of Writing essays are published in a printed volume. Scholarships are available for three authors who participate in the Santa Cruz Dickens Day of Writing event who are 18 years old by July 15 enroll in a 5-credit, intensive week-long college course at the Dickens Universe conference, taking place on the UC Santa Cruz campus.
Read
Discuss
Write
Publish
The Dickens Day of Writing is both a writing retreat and a writing competition designed to support junior and senior high school students in their futures as college students and professionals. By reflecting on a short essay by Charles Dickens, the students will reinforce skills learned in the classroom, such as critical reading, analytical reasoning, argumentative writing, creative production, and cultural history, to prepare them for life beyond high school.
Learning Objectives:
- to strengthen literary analysis skills
- to develop strong critical thinking skills
- to prepare students for timed writing tests
- to foster social engagement between students and their communities
Benefits and support for students:
- exposure to the culture of a major research university to support college preparation work
- the publication of their Dickens Day of Writing essay in a printed volume
- the chance for extra timed writing test preparation
- writing support to develop strong writing skills
For more information regarding this years Dickens Day of Writing click the link below!
LitLab
The Dickens Project maintains an ongoing partnership with the USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative. Under the terms of this partnership, the Friends of the Dickens Project support a scholarship program that brings several NAI students and their teachers to the annual Dickens Universe conference in Santa Cruz. The Friends provide funding to purchase books for two senior English classes at NAI where the featured novel for the next Universe will be studied. Students in these classes write an essay on the featured novel, and the authors of the best essays are selected to receive full scholarships to attend the following summer’s Dickens Universe conference.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S NEIGHBORHOOD ACADEMIC INITIATIVE
USC NAI is a seven-year college prep program catered to students attending public school in South and East Los Angeles. Students who remain in good standing within the program from sixth grade to graduation are eligible for full scholarships to USC. Since its first graduating class in 1997, nearly 1,000 students have completed USC NAI, 83 percent of whom were enrolled as freshmen at four-year universities.
The USC NAI program culminates when students reach their senior year. In partnership with the Dickens Project, seniors read and study the assigned Victorian novel of that year’s Dickens Universe conference. The immersive LitLab experience affords students the opportunity to work with university faculty and students, and to extend their learning beyond the classroom as they take field trips, learn from guest speakers, participate in advanced literary intensives, and take part in visual and performing arts adaptations.
