‘NOT ONLY DO THEY HAVE TALENT, THEY HAVE GUTS’

The students at Broad Ripple continue to amaze me every time I’m in the classroom with them. Being a creative writing student at Butler, I pride myself on my above average writing capabilities, but I was blown away by the talent that these kids have.

There’s a girl who I work with every time I’m at Broad Ripple. I met her during our first session there and started working with her regularly during the second week at the school. I was shocked at the level of dedication she had to her craft as only an eighth grader.

She explained to me that she was working on writing an entire screenplay which has since morphed into a TV series. She had developed an elaborate character chart that had originally started with picking random colors and then researching personality traits that went along with each color.

Next, she developed each of the main characters’ backgrounds. What their family was like, socioeconomic status, race, sexual orientation, what they were majoring in at college. That was all she had when I started working with her. Less than 2 months into the semester now, she has multiple scenes written and an unlimited amount of ideas brewing.

She’s not the only one with talent I’ve seen. Each week 10-15 students get up and present the work they’ve written, showcase their singing voices, present a new song they’ve learned on the violin, and dance it out in front of the whole room. Not only do they have talent, they have guts. When I was in their shoes I would dread having to give a presentation or read my work aloud to the class. But these students are eager. They look forward to sharing the hard work they’ve created to their peers and mentors. They give me the courage to take risks with my own writing and be fearless when sharing it with the world.

Lauren Biosi is a senior English major.