Havertown, Pennsylvania

1st Year

Sara came to Sarah Lawrence knowing she wanted to write fiction. "It’s a nice creative atmosphere," she says. "Every week there’s an opportunity to go see someone read a published work or hear students read their work." She dove into the creative process in her second semester, writing two short stories for her fiction workshop.

2nd Year

Although she had long been interested in computers, Sara had been disappointed by a programming course she took in high school. In her second year at Sarah Lawrence, the computer science theory course Achilles, the Tortoise and Alan Turing: The Limits of Computation provoked a different reaction. "It might be my favorite class of all four years here," she says. "It was a great opportunity to find my niche in the computer science world." In conference work, she was able to tie the course to components in both creative writing and literature.

"Sarah Lawrence taught me to push myself to my limits and really stretch my
perceptions and ideas about the world."

3rd Year

Sara spent her third academic year abroad in London, taking creative writing, literature and Web design. Although she gained much from the experience, she missed Sarah Lawrence’s focus on personal interests. "There wasn’t the same atmosphere of learning for the sake of learning," she says. "By the end of my first term there, I found myself longing to write a conference paper."

4th Year

In a yearlong fiction workshop, Sara has moved deeper into her craft. "My professor has been really helpful in making me revise my stories, which is something I had a tendency to shy away from in other years," she says. "I’m also experimenting with form, going beyond the traditional short story." With plans to enter the Rutgers University graduate program in English and creative writing, Sara sees teaching as a possible career goal, and hopes to work as an elementary school teaching assistant next year.

Extracurricular Involvement:

Captain, swim team
Interviewer, Office of Admission
Lifeguard, Sarah Lawrence pool
Member, crew team

Sample Courses:

First-Year Studies: Merchants, Queens and Hunter-Gatherers: Introductory History of Africa
Beginning Japanese
Fiction Workshop
Writing India: Transnational Narratives
Reading Text, Reading Code: Critical Readings in Cyberculture
Space and the Modern Novel