The central focus of the Artemis Young Writers Institute is to provide

structured insight on how to expand the writing skills of high school students in preparation for their transition to collegiate-level writing. To reach targeted demographics, the AYWI activated a partnership to support the need of students involved with the Federal Trio Program at Morehouse College, Atlanta Metropolitan College, and Savannah State University.  In addition, the AYWI has hosted summer writing camps at Maynard H. Jackson High School, Therrell High School, and Alonzo A. Crim High School; all Atlanta inner-city schools that service a financially challenged population, which have prescribed goals to expand student writing proficiency.

The Student Success Workshop Series is designed to address the most critical areas of college preparation, while helping youth to master planning for success in high school and college.

In a strategic effort to materialize student success in high school and college, the college process workshops will provide critical insight on the high school and college timeline of activities.  The timeline is a planning tool to help students understand items such as the best times to prepare for the SAT and ACT, when to apply to college, and stimulate interest in graduate school.  The timeline helps students to look at an overall success plan, which demonstrates the importance of making the transition from high school to college and from college to either graduate school or career.  Students become more informed about the overall college process and will be capable of making informed decisions concerning their academic success. 

To increase students’ college admission, scholarship opportunities, and to improve their writing skills, students will participate in the Student Success Workshop Series.  The workshop series is divided into four major arteries:  approach and structure, common grammatical errors, making writing more succinct, and the summer writing camp.

The scholarship essay writing workshops focus on persuasive writing and are designed to teach writing skills that students can use to compete for scholarships and use in all academic settings.  In addition, student knowledge of MLA and APA writing formats are expanded to provide evidence of their mastery of writing.  Students will be provided with deliberate opportunities to display performance competency via research through quantitative and qualitative approaches when writing a scholarship essay. 

In an effort to advance analytical skills, students learn critical thinking. Students are exposed to the basic pillars of critical thinking and how critical thinking is applied in college courses and in standardized test-taking environments. Also, critical thinking will prove to be beneficial to student comprehension, promptness in reading, writing, and test-tasking.

The final component, the summer writing camp, provides students with more in-depth strategies on how to write essays for general academic writing, the SAT and ACT, personal statements on college applications, and scholarship essays.   In addition, students participate in student-centered learning environments that will explore and master creative writing from a variety of perspectives.