Now in its ninth year, The Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship Program is an online program that pairs established writers with high school students (including graduating seniors) and gap year students (high school class of ’20 or ’21) interested in learning more about the creative writing processes of drafting, redrafting and editing.

The 2021 program will cater to poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction/memoir, and spoken word. The aim of the mentorship program is not formalized instruction, but rather an individualized, flexible, and often informal correspondence. Poetry and spoken word mentorship students will share weekly work with mentors and peers, while fiction and creative nonfiction/memoir mentorship students will share biweekly work with mentors and peers.

*CLICK HERE FOR OUR 2021 MENTORSHIP INFORMATION BOOKLET*

The application window for the 2021 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program is now closed. The application window for the 2022 program will open in February or March 2022. Please feel encouraged to sign up for updates below, to be notified when apps open.

The 2021 program will last from June 21st until August 2nd.

SIGN UP FOR UPDATES!

We’ll notify you when two weeks and one week remain to apply to the 2022 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program, as well as when applications open. Note: If you are subscribed to our mailing list, you will already receive these updates.

We are very proud of our alumni. Students have subsequently been recognized through the National YoungArts Foundation & United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts designation, the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year Awards, among a plethora of others. Check out our 2020 Scholastic Awards blog post to learn more about the four 2020 Gold Medal Writing Portfolio winners affiliated with the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program.

Over 65% of mentorship graduates have matriculated at Ivy League universities, Stanford, UChicago, or Oxbridge. Click here to view the mentorship alumni college list.

*CLICK HERE FOR OUR 2021 MENTORSHIP INFORMATION BOOKLET*

*CLICK HERE FOR OUR MENTORSHIP FAQ*

Applicants should possess a firm work ethic and some familiarity with the writing and revision process; should be comfortable with receiving (and giving) commentary and critique; and should be prompt and generous communicators. Applicants should also possess the will to explore and improve!

Tuition for participation in the full program is $350/student. Please note that there is no application fee. Furthermore, we want to assure applicants for whom tuition will be a barrier that fee remission and financial aid will be available. Need for financial assistance will be addressed entirely separately and will not be an influencing factor on mentorship admission decisions. Program administrators and application screeners will not have access to financial need information until after admission decisions have been made.

This opportunity will not offer academic credit (this is a mentorship, not a class!), and participation in this workshop is not a route to publication in The Adroit Journal. At the end of the day, we are looking for the best potential: the writers with the drive to explore and discuss, to be active participants, and to challenge themselves in their writing.

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The application for this year’s mentorship program consists of three parts—a Writer’s Statement, a Writing Sample (and multimedia sample for spoken word applicants), and an Academic Transcript.

The Writer’s Statement (between 1-2 pages double-spaced) should detail the applicant’s specific interest in pursuing The Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship Program. Don’t be afraid to be creative and original!

When writing your statement, we recommend that you ask yourself: What specifically about Adroit’s program piques your interest? Out of all the writing programs and mentorships out there, why are you applying to the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program? What compels you to keep writing, even when the going gets tough? What writers have influenced your writing style and approach thus far, and what sort of work do you hope to complete this summer and beyond?

The Writing Sample should consist of between four and five poems (max of twelve pages, with each poem starting on a new page) or between eight and twelve double-spaced pages of fiction or creative nonfiction (excerpts are acceptable). If you’re applying in multiple genres, you can use up to eight to twelve pages for each genre, and both should be in the Writing Sample. We consider all genres independent of their ranking on your app until the final stage.

The Academic Transcript is an optional component that is primarily used as a verification of student status. Transcripts may be official or unofficial and should ideally be in PDF form. There is no need to upload multiple transcripts if you’ve changed schools during your high school career—your latest transcript will suffice. If not sent with your application, a transcript, or other proof of student-status, is required when accepting a cohort spot.

Students who wish to apply to multiple genres may do so by utilizing both the First Choice and Second Choice options in the mentorship application form linked below. Important: If you wish to apply to more than one genre, please include two complete writing samples in one file, one for each genre, with your second-choice genre following the first.

*CLICK HERE FOR OUR 2021 MENTORSHIP INFORMATION BOOKLET*

Please find our summer mentorship FAQ in full here. Please direct additional questions to adroitmentorship@gmail.com.

Previous Cohorts

Class of 2020

Co-Directors: Peter LaBerge & John Allen Taylor.

Student Assistants: Taylor Fang & Krystal Yang.

Click here to learn more about our 2020 mentors.

Mentees: Margaret Balich, Brynn Beatty, Rachel Brooks, Christian Butterfield, Alice Cai, Lucy Cai, Alison Cao, Annie Cao, Spencer Chang, Adya Chatterjee, Jennifer Chiu, Annie Davison, Lane Devers, Kaya Dierks, Madelyn Dietz, Julia Do, Amour Ellis, Aanika Eragam, Sandhya Ganesan, Manasi Garg, Aran Glynn, Liv Goldreich, Adelina Rose Gowans, Katie Grierson, Dedeepya Guthikonda, May Hathaway, Jonah Henry, Charlotte Hughes, Annika Inampudi, Shriranjani Iyengar, Lyra Jannetta, Cassandra Kesig, Zain Ul Abidin Khan Alizai, Dohyun Kim, Sophie Kim, Irma Kiss-Barath, Divyasri Krishnan, Anne Kwok, Bianca Denise Layog, Jimin Alice Lee, Youngseo Lee, William Leggat, Corinne Leong, Stella Li, Sophie Main, Luz Mañunga, Aria Miao, Emma Miao, Sofia Miller, Sarah Fahtima Mohammed, Marjan Naderi, Charlotte Newman, Semilore Ola, Edith Patterson, Luisa Peñaflor, Lana Perice, Tre Poole, Em Power, Isabel Prioleau, Gayatri Rajan, Sophia Ramirez, Laya Reddy, Lauren Rooney, Jenny Shi, Elizabeth Shorkey, Alejandro Sigui, Olivia Sisson, Vivien Song, Sarah Street, Cobin Szymanski, Elyse Thomas, Jonathan Truong, Sakshi Umrotkar, Katherine Vandermel, Shreya Vikram, Nora Wagner, Amy Wang, Kexin Wang, Layla Wheelon, J. Xiang, Lily Yanagimoto, Amy Zhou, Frank Zhou, and Sophie Zhu.

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Class of 2019

Co-Directors: Carly Joy Miller & John Allen Taylor.

Student Assistants: Polina Solovyeva & Emily Tian.

Click here to learn more about our 2019 mentors & team.

Mentees: Claire Ahn, Aidan Aragon, Lukas Bacho, Kelsie Bennett, Maya Berardi, Elliot Bradley, Sage Braziel, Emory Brinson, Aluna Brogdon, Adina Cazacu-De Luca, Ana Chen, Daniel Chen, Sarah Chen, Isabella Cho, Audrey Chong, Annika Clark, Alex Clifford, Leo Cox, Jude Ehmka, Kendra Gilbert, Hannah Han, Catherine Ji, Lara Katz, Yasmeen Khan, Felix Killingsworth, Sarah Lao, Sylvan Lebrun, Jeffrey Liao, Emily Liu, Cynthia Lu, Katie Lu, Kaja Lucas, Tasneem Maher, Duy Quang Mai, Frances McKittrick, Uma Menon, Ernest O. Ogunyemi, Fiyinfoluwa Oladipo, Ottavia Paluch, Annamiciah Pendarvis, Meena Rakasi, Abby Richards, Mya Rigoli, Grace Song, Tuesday Sweeney, Yvanna Vien Tica, Patrick Tong, Ari Vishin, Jieyan Wang, Lydia Wei, Hana Widerman, Cindy Xin, Krystal Yang, Ann Zhang, Sophia Zhao, and Cynthia Zhou.

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Class of 2018

Co-Directors: Peter LaBerge & Carly Joy Miller.

Click here to learn more about our 2018 mentors.

Mentees: Darius Atefat-Peckham, Emma Banks, Tom Bosworth, Leah Boyd, Eliza Browning, Bailey Bujnosek, Adriana Carter, Stephanie Chang, Amelia Chen, Emily Chen, Sandra Chen, Haley Chung, Ana Maria Cornejo Silva, Kateri David, Olivia Dupuy, Quinn Filler, Dominy Gallo, Jocelyn Gao, Victoria Gong, Maria Gray, Amal Haddad, Evan Hochstein, Sabine Holzman, Olivia Hu, Bessie Huang, Kaylee Jeong, Jocelyn Leuenberger, Qingying (Susan) Li, Juliet Lubwama, Megan Lunny, Grace Lytle, Solomon Mussing, Jackson Neal, Linh Nguyen, Elise Ofilada, Harper Oreck, Sophie Paquette, Alexandria Quigley, Maya Salameh, Andrea Salvador, Maia Siegel, Cindy Song, Derek Song, Greta Timmins, Nikki Velletri, Priyanka Voruganti, Anna Wang, Grace Wang, Judy Xie, Jessica Xu, and Gabrielle Zhu.

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Class of 2017

Director: Carly Joy Miller.

Click here to learn more about our 2017 mentors.

Mentees: Isabella Alvarez, Fareena Arefeen, Tess Becket, Matilda Berke, Rudrakshi Bhattacharjee, Stella Binion, Margaret Blackburn, Bronwen Brenner, Anna Butcher, Yiwei Chai, Katie Chen, Steven Chung, Grace Coberly, Lyrik Courtney, Uma Dwivedi, Annie Fan, Taylor Fang, Sarah Feng, Lily Goldberg, Justin Han, Yuri Han, Vincent Hao, Jacqueline He, Mai Hoang, Caldwell Gregg Holden, Lilly Hunt, Kara Jackson, Heather Jensen, Isabella Jiang, Nadia Jo, Masfi Khan, Audrey Kim, Heather Yenna Kim, Katherine Kim, Ananya Kumar-Banerjee, Ezra Lebovitz, Eunice Lee, Shereen Lee, Julia Lee-Papastavros, Morgan Levine, Enshia Li, Isabella Li, Serena Lin, Margaret Lu, Vivian Lu, Erin O’Malley, Rebecca Oet, Andrew Rickert, Tessa Rudolph, Emily Schultz, Vidhima Shetty, Ashira Shirali, Tarik Shwaish, Sahara Sidi, Griffin Somaratne, Rachel Sucher, Emily Tian, Stephanie Tom, Amelia Van Donsel, Valerie Wu, AnQi Yu, Zuyi Zhao, Nicole Zhen, Adam Zhou, and Joyce Zhou.

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Class of 2016

Co-Directors: Peter LaBerge & Douglas Ray.

Mentorship Correspondent: Frani O’Toole.

Click here to learn more about our 2016 mentors.

Mentees: Olivia Alger, Sophie Allen, Margot Armbruster, Nikita Bastin, Anjali Berdia, Caroline Bernstein, Daniel Blokh, Annabel Brazaitis, Emma Camp, Annie Castillo, Letitia Chan, Michelle Chen, Emma Choi, Jisoo Choi, Annabelle Crowe, Helli Fang, Joseph Felkers, Kindall Gant, Michel Ge, Samuel Gee, Reuben Gelley Newman, Farah Ghafoor, Julia Gourary, Jaclyn Grimm, Alexandra Gulden, Jordan Harper, Rachana Hegde, Angelo Hernandez-Sias, Cassandra Hsiao, Eileen Huang, Jimin Kang, Alexandra Karaim, Lilly Keefe-Powers, Elizabeth Kim, Tomas Kontakevich, Anthony Lagana, Elizabeth Lemieux, Rachel Litchman, Katherine Liu, Patricia Liu, Kaley Mamo, Alyssa Mazzoli, Rhiannon McGavin, Noel Peng, Anika Prakash, Joey Reisberg, Jae Haeng Rhee, Josh Schlachter, Nicole Seah, Polina Solovyeva, Scott Stevens, Eliana Swerdlow, Kwan Ann Tan, Selin Turkyilmaz, Jordan Villegas, Alisa Wadsworth, Rona Wang, Alisha Yi, Emily Yin, Charity Young, Margaret Zhang, Lily Zhou, and Lisa Zou.

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Class of 2015

Director: Peter LaBerge.

Click here to learn more about our 2015 mentors.

Mentees: Nathan Blansett, Gabriel Braunstein, Walker Caplan, Carissa Chen, Catherine Cheng, Jordan Cutler-Tietjen, Maya Eashwaran, Sophie Evans, Griffin Blue Fay, Maeve Flaherty, Talia Flores, Aidan Forster, Andrea Giugni, Ava Goga, Alex Greenberg, Kathryn Hargett, Anastasia Hutnick, Christina Im, Safwan Khatib, Anna Kramer, Michal Leibowitz, Jane Levy, Brianna McNish, Abigail Minard, Meghana Mysore, Taylor Petty, Ben Read, Brynne Rebele-Henry, Elena Sénéchal-Becker, Shannon Sommers, Jane Song, Caroline Tsai, Jamie Uy, Smriti Verma, Lucy Wainger, Eli Winter, Trudy Wrona, Carrie Zhang, Emily Zhang, Jessica Zhang, Audrey Zhao, and Emily Zhao.

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Class of 2014

Director: Peter LaBerge.

Mentors: Elizabeth Ballou, Alexa Derman, Katherine Frain, Kaitlin Jennrich, Caleb Kaiser, Peter LaBerge, and Talin Tahajian.

Mentees: Rebecca Alifimoff, Ethan Aronson, Adelina Ceretto, Lindsay Emi, Robert Esposito, Charlotte Goddu, Eden Arielle Gordon, Erica Guo, Caroline Harris, Maddie Kim, Jessica Li, Erica Lin, Emma Lister, Helene Lovett, Emily Mack, Alyssa Mulé, Meredith Prochaska, Christina Qiu, Lucy Silbaugh, Jasmine Simms, Audrey Spensley, Lily Spiro, Oriana Tang, Sarah Tran, and Daniel Warner.

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Class of 2013

Founder & Director: Peter LaBerge.

Mentors: Sarah Fletcher, Caleb Kaiser, Peter LaBerge, and Emma Townley-Smith.

Mentees: Julia Allen, Samantha Ardoin, Yasmin Belkhyr, Samantha Berkefeld, Rachel Bunting, Emily Burns, Brittany Clark, Sarah Craig, Flora de Falbe, Lauren Finkle, Katherine Frain, Miles Hewitt, Lily Kerfoot, Alicia Lai, Owen Lucas, Jane Loechler, Molly McGinnis, Reiss McGuinness, Bridget Menasche, Jacob Oet, Amanda Prager, Christina Qiu, Abigail Schott-Rosenfield, Amanda Silberling, Sarah Stanton, Talin Tahajian, Lucy Wainger, and Shelley Whitaker.