Drexel’s Main Building filled with young, curious, creative and motivated student writers for three days this April.  

The College of Arts and Sciences hosted a series of writing workshops for local high school students as part of this year’s Drexel Writing Festival. Over 300 students participated in these immersive days of writing and discovery. 

The fast-paced, hands-on workshops were designed to get students writing boldly and thoughtfully from the moment they arrived on campus. Led by expert Drexel faculty members and student facilitators from the English program, these interactive sessions challenged students to experiment across genres — including fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry — while receiving meaningful feedback and mentorship along the way. 

This experience gives students the chance to stretch their creative confidence and develop stronger writing skills across multiple forms. 

“It is great to see growth in these writers and to witness them seeing the possibilities of a future in writing,” said Alison Lubar, an English teacher at Haddon Heights High School who has been bringing students to the Drexel Writing Festival for the past three years. Some of her students have returned multiple times.  

“The program gives them a way to explore creative writing and to incorporate it in all that they do. It shows that being creative is part of being human.” 

Students also get the chance to collaborate with peers from other schools and experience a dynamic collegiate creative writing environment. Spending the day at Drexel also introduces students to life on a college campus and allows them a glimpse of what their post-secondary education can look like.  

“This is a unique opportunity for high school students, who may be visiting a university setting for the very first time,” said Pennsbury High School English teacher Michele Malinowski, who brought 40 students in grades 9-12 to the Festival.  

The workshops inspired students to challenge their voices and ignite their creativity as they develop their writing skills. Not only were there future writers in the room — there were probably some future Dragons, too.