Learn to tell the most impactful story you can tell: the story of you! Authoring the Personal Narrative invites middle and high school students to explore the power of their own voices and experiences through storytelling. In this course, students will learn how to craft compelling personal narratives that reflect their unique experiences, values, and perspectives.
Through a mix of reading, writing, discussion-based classes, and creative exercises, students will develop essential skills in self-expression, structure, and style. We will read a variety of personal narrative texts, including essays, poetry, spoken word, and more, centered around telling their authors’ stories, and use them as inspiration to pen our own stories. Emphasis will be placed on writing with authenticity, finding one’s voice, and understanding how personal experiences can resonate with others.
By the end of the course, students will have produced a polished personal narrative and gained confidence in writing about themselves with clarity, honesty, and purpose. Critically, this course is extremely relevant to students’ academic careers, as it will prepare students powerfully to express their stories for the personal essays they will write for college applications and scholarship applications.
Powerful Writing: The Personal Narrative
Length: 14 weeks
Dates and times: Mondays and Wednesdays, 7:00 PM - 7:50 PM (EST)
First day of class: September 3, 2025
Last day of class: December 10, 2025
Ash DiCristofalo received her Bachelor's from Haverford College, where she majored in Biology and minored in Classical Culture and Society, and her Master's from the University of Pennsylvania. She attended the prestigious Iowa Young Writer's Studio, had her writing published in the encyclopedia American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore, and received 5s on the AP English Language and Composition and AP English Literature and Composition exams, all of which developed her deep appreciation of rhetoric and how writers, advertisers, and speakers persuade others - and therefore, how we must critically think about how we respond to persuasive texts in the age of the Internet and AI. She recently wrapped up her position working as the Director of Graduate Engineering Programs at Haverford College. Ash has successfully worked with My Ivy Education students for years, guiding them on application essays that get them accepted to the top colleges and private high schools in the country, all while incorporating her signature creative and analytical approach.