Members of NDP’s 2014-15 Creative Writing Club sport new t-shirts created by sophomore Anna Sartori. From left, Katharine Lawrence (10), Mariel Manzor (10), Riley Simmonds (9), Jacqueline Kenny (10) and Anna Sartori (10).November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. The NaNoWriMo basic challenge is to write a 50,000-word novel in one month.
The Creative Writing Club (CWC) at Notre Dame, one of many clubs and organizations available to students who want more out of their school day than regular classes, appears to have taken up that challenge and will have a busy month.
English department chair and upper school teacher Anthony Butorac helms the Creative Writing Club, which meets most Fridays after school. The CWC brings students together for a regular opportunity to share their writing with others and to host workshops and activities to develop writing skills, learn new styles of writing and provide peer critiques.
This year, members of the CWC created new t-shirts to help get their message out and to perhaps recruit new members. Among the inscriptions on the shirt—designed by NDP sophomore Anna Sartori—is “I am a writer, anything you say or do can and will be used in my next story.” Also on the shirt is a reference to NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo began in California
NaNoWriMo began in 1991, the brainchild of freelance writer Chris Baty, with "20 other over-caffeinated yahoos," in the San Francisco Bay Area. "We wanted to write novels for the same dumb reasons twentysomethings start bands," Baty writes on the event’s web site. "Because we wanted to make noise. Because we didn’t have anything better to do."
But they discovered quickly that it actually was fun.
"You get a bunch of friends together, load up on caffeine and junk food, and stare at a glowing screen for a couple of hours," Baty adds. “And a story spins itself out in front of you.”
Model UN new this year
NDPMA’s clubs now number more than 20, which is more than many peer schools offer. They are devoted to a variety of topics which include math, improvisation, newspaper, leadership, environmental awareness and robotics. Among the new clubs this year is a Model United Nations club in the upper division for students interested in playing roles as ambassadors, as student "delegates,” who make speeches, prepare draft resolutions, negotiate with allies and adversaries, resolve conflicts, and navigate the Model UN conference rules of procedure—all in the interest of mobilizing international cooperation to resolve problems that affect countries all over the world.
With roots going back to the early 20th century at Harvard University, Model United Nations is a high school- and college-based simulation of the United Nations General Assembly located in New York City. In Model UN, students step into the shoes of ambassadors from UN member states to debate current issues on the organization's agenda.
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.