Photo by Erin Nelson.
Annie Kirkpatrick, a junior at Briarwood Christian School, sits at the kitchen table with her laptop May 4. Kirkpatrick will be participating in a two-week virtual study with The New York Times staff for creative writing.
Annie Kirkpatrick was looking forward to spending two weeks of her summer before her senior year in New York City. An aspiring writer, she was selected to attend the Summer Academy 2020 at The School of The New York Times.
But instead of heading to the Big Apple, the Briarwood Christian School junior will instead be taking the courses online from her Birmingham home. Kirkpatrick learned April 27 that in the interest of student health, the courses would be online.
The email read, “As always, our first priority is to protect the health and safety of our students, and in this unprecedented time, holding an in-person program would simply not allow us to do this. In an effort to help our students keep learning and pursuing their passions this summer, The School of The New York Times is moving our Summer Academy online for the 2020 session.”
Kirkpatrick said she decided on journalism after having several teachers commend her on her writing skills.
“In eighth grade, I had my first teacher that told me I was a writer,” she said. “She picked me out and said this is what writing is supposed to look like. My 10th-grade year, I got the best teacher I ever had who told me I should really consider creative writing next year and journalism as a major.”
Kirkpatrick talked to her mom and decided that as a junior, it would be important for her to get involved in some programs. She began researching different options before her mom showed her an ad for The School of the New York Times. She applied during the early deadline, and in January, after having a really bad day, opened an email with some good news.
“That night, I was checking my email and it said congratulations, you’ve been accepted,” she said. “I was crying and mom was crying. I had been accepted into the creative writing program.”
Kirkpatrick said she has done journalism essay writing and for the past several years has been doing screenplay writing. She also has a long-term goal of publishing a novel by the time she retires.
To her knowledge, Kirkpatrick is the first Briarwood student to participate in this program. A few days after getting the acceptance email, she made a countdown sign as she anticipated her trip. Although she won’t be heading to NYC this summer, she said she hopes to eventually end up living there.
Her two-week creative writing intensive will be July 19-31. She will be taught by award-winning New York Times journalists and expert practitioners. In the event any of her courses have to be canceled, Kirkpatrick may transfer to another course that has space available.
Her goals during the course were to learn more about her craft and learn how to better complete projects.
“I have a hard time sticking to projects and finishing things,” she said. “I think learning from people who have been there and done that and love it can teach me to hone my ability. I want to get refocused on rather than just being the best writer ever, to just be the best writer Annie Kirkpatrick can be.”
After she completes the program, Kirkpatrick would have the opportunity to attend next year.
“You can do a gap summer as opposed to a two-week program,” she said. “Assuming I love it, I’m very interested in doing it again.”
At Briarwood, Kirkpatrick is involved in the theater club and assists with the productions in the spring and fall. She is the president of the school’s newly formed Trumbauer group and will be again next school year. She is an ambassador for the school and also in the tutoring club. She recently finished writing a short screenplay and serves on the youth board of the Sidewalk Film Festival.
She also runs cross-country in the fall and is hopeful that sports will resume by then.
Because her junior year at Briarwood was cut short, she has been doing e-learning at home. She said although it’s been weird, some days she really likes to be able to work at her own pace and get her work completed before noon.
“I’m just glad I’m a junior rather than a senior,” she said “I’m in a better situation than most. I have already taken the ACT, so I am just trying to count my blessings and stay positive and focus on writing.”
