Summer Writing Programs for High School Students: A Comprehensive Guide

Summer writing programs offer high school students an excellent opportunity to explore subjects that interest them, build valuable skills, get a taste of college life, and meet like-minded peers. They also look awesome on a college application! These programs provide a platform for students to hone their writing skills, explore various genres, and receive guidance from experienced writers and educators.

Benefits of Summer Writing Programs

Summer writing programs for high school students offer many benefits, from sharpening your writing style and organisational skills to becoming a more discerning reader and effective communicator. If you’re a student looking to polish their skills, look no further!

Skill Enhancement: These programs go deeper than grammar and punctuation, focusing on strengthening critical thinking and language skills, the building blocks of powerful writing.
Exposure to Diverse Genres: Participants can jump into new genres of writing and explore a variety of forms, styles, and voices.
Community Building: Students experience being in a community of writers, working in small groups and receiving focused attention from teachers.
Personal Growth: "This experience helped me grow because I was in a supportive community of writers," as one participant noted. "Having another perspective on one’s work can be a very enlightening experience and it doesn’t have to be scary. My mentor was able to point me to new possibilities for my writing and my characters, and I’m very grateful for it."
Self-Discovery: "I have grasped a better understanding of myself as a writer," shared another student. "I have learned the importance of balancing plot and description and dialogue, as well as integrating them in a more seamless manner."
College Preparation: Summer programs offer high school students an excellent opportunity to explore subjects that interest them, build valuable skills, get a taste of college life, and meet like-minded peers. They also look awesome on a college application!

Featured Summer Writing Programs

Here's a detailed look at some of the best summer writing programs available for high school students:

Write the World’s Virtual Writing Camp

Write the World’s Virtual Writing Camp allows students to jump into new genres of writing, connect with campers across the globe, and learn from notable authors, editors, and educators. This virtual camp is an excellent way for teens ages 13-19 to explore a variety of writing genres within a supportive community of educators, authors, and peers.

Format: Virtual, with 90-minute synchronous camp sessions each day via Zoom, involving interactive writing activities. Sessions will be recorded for those individuals who cannot make the live meetings.
Instructors: WtW Virtual Writing Camps are led by members of the WtW team, trained authors and educators who work with our global community of young writers year-round.
Cost: Registration is $349 for one week of camp.
Cancellation Policy: Participants may cancel their registration for the camp at any time up to 10 days prior to the first day of the camp, and they will be entitled to a refund of the fees paid, less a $50 cancellation fee. Any cancellations made within 10 days of the first day of the camp will not be eligible for a refund.

Virtual On-Demand Course for Teens: Complete Your College Essay

This flexible, self-paced program is designed to fit into even the busiest schedule while offering expert advisor feedback to guide you through each step of the essay process. It is ideal for incoming Junior or Senior students.

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Princeton Summer Journalism Program (PSJP)

The Princeton Summer Journalism Program (PSJP) is your chance to hone your skills and gain invaluable experience. At Princeton’s Summer Journalism Program, you’ll learn from the best! Get a chance to attend lectures and workshops led by esteemed Princeton professors and professional journalists to gain insights into current events and the world of journalism.

Selectivity: The Princeton Summer Journalism Program (PSJP) selects 40 high-achieving students from historically underrepresented backgrounds to participate in its revered program.
Curriculum: In the PSJP, students explore current events, listen to lectures, and participate in workshops led by professional journalists and Princeton professors.
Culmination: The program culminates in a 10-day residential experience at Princeton University, with the publication of a student-produced newspaper, the Princeton Summer Journal.

Iowa Young Writers’ Studio

You can take your writing to the next level with the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio’s immersive 2-week residential program. It will help you deepen your craft by letting you choose your focus - poetry, fiction, creative writing, playwriting, or TV writing - and receive personalised guidance alongside other talented young writers across the US.

Residential Experience: The Iowa Young Writers’ Studio provides high schoolers the incredible opportunity to have a residential experience and study with graduates of one of the most renowned writing programs in the nation: the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

CSSSA Writing Program

You can immerse yourself in a world of creativity this summer with the prestigious CSSSA Writing Program. It is one of the best high schools for creative writing. Here, expert guidance awaits you! You’ll learn from professional writers and educators who guide you through fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and dramatic writing.

Boston University Summer Journalism Academy

The Boston University Summer Journalism Academy offers a dynamic program to jumpstart your journalism journey.

New York Times Summer Academy

The prestigious New York Times Summer Academy offers an immersive experience for students hungry to explore journalism and creative fields. It is one of the best creative schools in the world. Here, you can explore your passions and choose from various courses, from filmmaking and pop music to the legal system and investigative journalism.

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Camp Cronkite (Arizona State University)

Camp Cronkite is your chance to dive into the exciting world of journalism with the experts at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School. This program will help you choose your path as the course focuses on digital journalism, broadcast journalism, or sports media, honing your skills in reporting, storytelling, and editing.

Curriculum: Led by Cronkite faculty, staff, and students, campers learn about digital journalism, broadcast journalism, or sports media.
Sports Media Track: For the Sports Media track, campers learn sports photography, try out play-by-play coverage, and attend live sporting events to test their skills in action.

Telluride Association Summer Seminars (TASS)

If you are passionate about critical thinking, social justice, and expressing yourself through writing, TASS could be your best option, as it is one of the best high schools for creative writing! What makes TASS so unique is that it is free to attend. TASS is highly selective. Their acceptance rate is 3-5%, meaning you can join a vibrant intellectual community.

Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program

This one is for all aspiring writers in grades 10-12. With this course, you can enhance your craft and discover your unique voice. It will help you deepen your skills in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or graphic storytelling.

Summer Ink

This program goes deeper than grammar and punctuation. It focuses on strengthening critical thinking and language skills, the building blocks of powerful writing.

Sarah Lawrence Writer’s Week

Sarah Lawrence Writer’s Week is open to creative minds aged 14 and above. Unleash your inner writer and performer in workshops designed to ignite your creativity. Delve into the world of improvisation, character development, and other interactive theater exercises. Sarah Lawrence Writer’s Week goes beyond traditional writing, guiding you to discover the powerful link between the written word and its expression through performance. This exploration will elevate your storytelling skills to a whole new level. But that’s not all! Collaborate and learn alongside a supportive community in a dynamic environment with a maximum of 18 students per class.

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During Sarah Lawrence Writers’ Week, participants (the program welcomes students entering the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades) explore the creative process led by esteemed Sarah Lawrence faculty and alumni.
Sarah Lawrence Writing Week celebrates the risk and adventure of the creative process, fosters a non-competitive and non-judgmental environment, and keeps with the Sarah Lawrence tradition of individualized attention-groups are limited to 18 students with two faculty members per workshop.

Unterberg Poetry Center’s Young Writers Workshop

Established in 1939, this prestigious program offers a nurturing environment for high school students to learn from New York City’s finest poetry instructors. And more than just writing you’d also develop critical thinking skills and learn to analyze your work and the work of others.

The Unterberg Poetry Center has been home to established and up-and-coming poets since it was founded in 1939. Students at its Young Writers Workshop receive coaching from some of New York’s best writing teachers and explore a variety of forms, styles, and voices in a warm and supportive environment.

LMU’s School of Film and Television Beginning Screenwriting Program

Turn your ideas into gripping stories with LMU’s School of Film and Television Beginning Screenwriting Program. This intensive program offers expert guidance as you get to learn from industry professionals who are also successful screenwriters.

LMU’s School of Film and Television also offers a dynamic online workshop that participants can access to strengthen writing skills from the comfort of their home. The online program lends insight into the remote “writer’s room” setting, where small class sizes allow for extensive feedback and workshopping from peers and faculty.
Students will work on structure, character development, dialogue, formatting, and genre while analyzing both classic and contemporary popular movies.

Juniper Institute for Young Writers

Students in the Juniper Institute for Young Writers participate in writing sessions, share questions, and discuss their work and writing-related topics over the course of this two-week, residential program. Students will be provided a written summary of their work, an evaluation of writing goals, and future considerations for their writing.

Annenberg Youth Academy for Media and Civic Engagement (AYA)

AYA is a free, immersive experience for 26 talented high school students from the area surrounding USC. The program allows participants to explore USC Annenberg’s undergraduate programs, gain insight into careers in media and journalism, and meet the people advancing issues of race, gender, and ethnicity in communication and journalism. Throughout this program, students build a variety of skills, including writing and critical thinking.

Reynolds Young Writers Workshop (Denison University)

For more than a quarter of a century, Denison University has welcomed talented high school writers (rising juniors and seniors) to its acclaimed Reynolds Young Writers Workshop. The program is limited to 48 students or fewer in order to maintain a low student-faculty ratio and is led by Denison’s creative writing faculty and notable visiting writers.

Alpha: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Workshop for Young Writers

Over Alpha’s 12 days, students with an interest in science fiction, fantasy, or horror learn how to generate ideas, turn those ideas into drafts, critique each other’s work, make revisions, and submit their work to paying markets. The workshop hosts 4 guest authors who lead writing exercises, give lectures on honing their craft, and eat meals with the students.

Shared Worlds

This fun writing program is for high school students with an interest in speculative fiction-for example, science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk. Shared Worlds is a residential program for rising 8th- to 12th-grade students to work under the guidance of renowned fantasy and science fiction writers.

Bard College’s Young Writers Workshop

This program is modeled on the well-known Language and Thinking Workshop all students entering Bard College are required to take. Unlike other creative writing workshops, leaders of this young writers workshop encourage informal, playful, and expressive writing and lean on peer response to develop polished pieces of writing.

Kenyon Young Writers Workshop

Come to the picturesque campus of Kenyon College to participate in its Young Writers Workshop. In this multi-genre program, students experience what it’s like to be part of the literary community while bolstering their talents, discovering new strengths, and challenging themselves in the company of similarly interested peers.

For students who can’t make it to Ohio for two weeks, the online workshop is a great alternative. With writing workshops for three and a half hours every day, it’s possible to take advantage of the program without relocating.

BYU’s Young Authors Academy

At BYU’s Young Authors Academy, students speak with local and nationally recognized authors, review each other’s writing, work with faculty in the BYU English department, stay in campus housing, take small-group writing courses, and meet other like-minded peers.

Fir Acres Writing Workshop (Lewis & Clark College)

Fir Acres writing program takes sixty rising 10th-12th graders from around the country and forms a community of enthusiastic writers on the campus of Lewis and Clark College. Students participate in daily workshops studying and writing under the guidance of Lewis and Clark’s faculty.

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Pre-College Program

Over the weeks of the program, students at CMU will examine film, writing, design, art, and culture through various lenses. Learning will take place both on CMU’s campus and around the city of Pittsburgh. Students will produce a body of work perfect for a portfolio during the program under the tutelage of highly distinguished faculty members of the Department of English.

School of The New York Times Summer Academy

The School of the New York Times offers a wide range of fascinating classes to students interested in journalism. Courses include The Art of Multimedia Journalism, Feature Writing, Writing About Food Culture in NYC, Global Reporting, and many more. Students are taught by professionals in journalism with experience in reporting, editing, and other relevant industries.

Georgetown University’s Creative Writing Academy

During Georgetown University’s Creative Writing Academy, students will have the chance to engage in dynamic lectures on craft topics, receive feedback from peers, workshop with graduate student instructors, and practice what they have learned through developing their own written works.

Yale Young Writers’ Workshop

At the Yale Young Writers’ Workshop, students experiment with writing in one of three genres (fiction, nonfiction, or poetry) and receive personalized feedback in small, focused groups. During the week, students will have the opportunity to attend craft talks, open mics, faculty and visiting author readings, and student readings as they explore this field as a passion and a potential future career.

UCLA Writing Programs: English Composition 50

English Composition 50: Introduction to College Writing for High School Students is a non-resident writing course for English-speaking high school students who seek to strengthen their writing and discussion skills. For over twenty years, UCLA Writing Programs has helped undergraduates successfully meet the challenges of a university education. Through a three week summer workshop, UCLA’s highly regarded writing specialists will help college-bound students prepare for those challenges. All activities will demystify the unstated differences between college and high school writing. The summer workshop will also attend to the college application process, including the application essay.

Dates & Meeting Time: Tuesdays 10AM-2PM (with a 30-min. Tues. July 15th through Thurs.
Eligibility: Non-UCLA students must be 15 years of age or older by July 11th, 2025 to be eligible. Course-specific requirements may apply.
Registration: Access the Summer Courses Registration Form starting February 15. This form applies to non-UCLA students interested in taking Summer Courses, Summer Online, or Summer Intensives. Submit the form and pay the registration fee of $350 ($150 for UC students). NOTE: The registration fee only allows you to enroll in the course. You must also pay tuition for the course. To calculate the amount of tuition for the course, go to the UCLA Summer Sessions Fee Calculator. Enroll in ENGCOMP 50 course on MyUCLA under the “Classes” tab and “Find a Class and Enroll”.
Scholarships: We offer several scholarships that cover full program tuition. Please note that this scholarship does not cover housing.

Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions

Colleges look for students who explore their interests outside the classroom. Extracurricular activities are an important way to demonstrate your passions. Extracurricular activities are broken down into four tiers, with Tier 1 representing those that are the most impressive and unique and Tier 4 representing those that are the most common. Summer programs fall into different tiers depending on factors like selectivity, theme, and more.

Alternative Options: Internships and Self-Directed Projects

Though summer break provides you with the most time to explore your passions, it is not the only time. Instead of participating in a program, you could create your own. You can show further initiative by taking on internships and paying jobs. Both demonstrate initiative, a career direction, and key life skills like time management and responsibility. Since most internships are reserved for college students and graduates, it can be a challenge to find opportunities for high school students.

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