Hi, my name is Samantha Blicker. I am a senior in ATCS. My favorite part of this course is how we have so much freedom to be creative with our work. The limit to creativity is endless from making our own movie, to playing acting games in class and cell text cartoons. I would love to spend more time going more in depth on Disney and the themes within the movies and how they have changed over time. An example of this would be woman impowerment in the movie Frozen or racism in the movie Peter Pan. I would recommend this class to anyone who is looking for a class where you can be creative but also learn about important people and real world topics.
Sammie Blicker
Flower Cintron
Hi, my name is Flower Cintron. I really enjoyed taking Advanced Topics in Creative Studies this year. I loved learning about different artistic elements ranging from learning about influential poets and writing poetry to learning how to read music. I loved filming and I was so excited about creating our own podcasts. I learned so much about how to be a more well-rounded and cultured person, seeing as coming into the class I had never even watched Harry Potter. My favorite piece of work that I have done in Advanced Topics in Creative Studies was our midterm assignment. For this assignment, we were asked to write a story or a series of poems that correlated with a piece of artwork such as a painting, photographs, etc. I chose to write a series of poems about what my idea of the future of the world will look like. I really enjoyed painting the images for these as well. I will always remember this class and miss the time I spent here.
Shelby Coleman
I’m Shelby Coleman, and I have enjoyed having ATCS as part of my senior schedule. Writing has always been my favorite part of school, and I feel that this class has added more creativity to my preexisting skillset. During fall, we studied Southern Gothic writers, such as Flannery O’Connor, and their writing techniques. This unit allowed me to try and mirror a completely new and specific style and make it my own, which helped me to create suspense in my own writing. My musical skills have improved in this course as well, as we learned how to play the handbells in 2-part harmonies to carol around the school. We studied iconic film tactics and camera angles to create our own films that had organized plot lines. I look forward to carrying the artistic skills that I have learned from Ms. O’Brien and my classmates with me to college next year.
Maxine Danni
Hi, my name is Maxine Danni. I really enjoy Advanced Topics in Creative Studies for multiple different reasons. It is a class where your creative abilities come to life. Furthermore, it is a class with ONLY girls by coincidence! Usually boys have been in and enjoyed the class, but I guess we all got lucky this year. Having all girls makes the class more comfortable and we are all able to express ourselves freely without feeling insecure. I joined this class thinking it was only going to be about drawing and painting. I was wrong; I learned about Bernstein, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky and analyzed the differences in their overtures. I also began to dig more deeply when watching movies and am now aware of different camera angles and how things are filmed. My favorite piece in ATCS is my drawing of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. I learned how animated films are created and how much work is put into just making just 1 second of a film. I highly recommend this class for anyone who wants to put their creativeness to use!
Hi! My name is Sara Goodwich, and I am a senior at CSN. I loved being in ATCS this year. My favorite activity from this year was writing with the inspiration of a classical piece. I incorporated the song “Ah, Vous Dirais-Je, Maman” by Mozart into my writing. I think that it was amazing to see how a simple melody could spark my imagination to create a story. I also loved being able to use creativity to produce a piece of art that connected to a short story. Over the summer, I learned how to make bracelets, so I really enjoyed being able to use this new skill and connect it to my writing in school. I have learned so much in ATCS this year. I am so excited to use this knowledge that I have acquired and incorporate it into my life in college next year.
Sara Goodwich
Danielle Jaffe
Hi! My name is Danielle Jaffe, and I am a senior at CSN. My favorite unit in ATCS was the Disney unit. I loved watching the Disney movies and seeing how they have changed and progressed over time. While watching the original Cinderella, I saw so many things that needed to be changed and seemed dated. In the new Cinderella, I loved to see all the changes that were made to make the movie more acceptable in modern society. My favorite piece that I created this year was definitely the cel animation. It was so cool to learn about how the first animated movies were made. I created Mickey Mouse, and I was so proud of how it turned out.
Samara Jivani
Hi! My name is Samara Jivani. As a Creative Scholar, I knew I was required to take Advanced Topics in Creative studies; however this ended up being one of my favorite classes. In ATCS, we have the opportunity to create scripts, paint, draw, write, read, podcast, film, and manage all other aspects of creativity. I love reading and writing, so our short story unit was one of my favorites. I loved "The Last Night of the World" by Ray Bradbury, which focuses on acceptance, death, and inevitability. The story ends with so many unanswered questions which leaves us to use our own imagination for the ending. ATCS has really widened my perspective and pushed me outside my comfort zone. This is the best class i’ve taken at CSN and I love starting off my mornings with this class!
My name is Ariana Kodad, And I am a senior this year at CSN. Last year, when I was picking my classes, I saw advanced topics in creative studies listed as a class. I wasn’t sure what we would do in this class exactly, so I asked the students who took this class the previous year. They were not quite clear about what they did exactly, for all I got out of it was that they absolutely loved it. Therefore, I knew I had to give a ATCS a shot. We exercised the creative side of our brains by learning about short stories to music to making movies. English classes normally have strict curriculums in which you are told what to write about specifically. However, during our writing course, I was finally able to express myself creatively. My favorite part about a ATCS was the freedom to be as creative as we would like, for I have yet to experience that chance in high school during the past four years. I recommend this class for anyone who would like to get out of their comfort zone or force themselves to try and be more creative. I truly believe that ATCS has both widened my knowledge and creativity in the artistic world.
Ariana Kodad
Hello, my name is Elizabeth Lannin and as a student in Creative Studies I have been exposed to a plethora of different units that we went through of the course of this school year. A few of the units that stood out to me was our music unit. After learning about some famous musicians like Tchaikovsky, we then were given the challenge of learning to read sheet music and pay the bells accordingly. Together as a class, we used our newly acquired skills to play on beat and in harmony. This was one of my favorite units because it helped me increase my teamwork ability as it took each individual playing their part to make the music into a whole. This challenged me to be very patient with others throughout our bell days. Other units that we touched upon was our poetry unit around the beginning of the year. For one of our earlier assignment we were given a list of quotes and then tasked with the challenge of creating something that fit the quote. I greatly enjoyed the freedom that we had when deciding what quote, we wanted and how we wanted to interpret it. I chose a poem by Jackson Pollock. The poem, ‘ When I say Artist, I mean someone who builds thing. Some with a brush – some with a shovel – some choose a pen’. To fit my poem, I chose to make an origami elephant. I chose an elephant because I know that they are very intelligent creatures and I have found them to be very fascinating.
Elizabeth Lannin
Cecilia Nakfoor
Hi! I’m Ceci Nakfoor, and I’ve been at CSN since pre-k. I’ve always had an interest in the creative realms that ATCS explores, and I am so thankful that I was finally able to take a class dedicated to such topics. We’ve done creative writing, music, painting, film…we’ve done it all! My favorite unit, though, was certainly the film unit. I’ve always loved acting and movies, and so being able to learn about what goes into the making of a film has been really awesome—I’ll never be able to watch a movie the same way again! Making our own movie has made me realize that I want to hopefully pursue something related to film in the future. Thank you so much to Ms. O’Brien for an amazing year!
Hi, my name is Nina Pitonakova. Advanced Topics in Creative Studies is one of my favorite classes for many reasons, but I’m going to talk about my two-absolute favorite. I’ve always loved reading and writing because it takes you to another world, a creative world. Reading and writing fiction lets you pretend like you’re a different person living a different life; it lets your imagination flourish to a new level. In ATCS, we read many short stories and even got a chance to write some of our own based off of the ones we read. My second favorite project in class was our film unit! We watched movies such as Schindler’s List, Spotlight, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, and the live-action Mulan movie. After learning about these movies, how they were filmed, how to write a screenplay, and all the camera angles, we made our own films! I was in a group with Flower, Sara, and Maxine. We each took part in writing a portion of the screenplay and filming the movie. We called it Southern Hell; it was a sort of spin off, off of Mean Girls. Advanced Topics in Creative Studies was by far one of the most interesting classes I’ve ever been in and I would recommend it 1000% to anyone!
Nina Pitonakova
Sydney Schiller
Hey, I'm Sydney Schiller! So far ATCS has been one of the most amazing classes I’ve taken here at CSN. Before I came to class I didn't have an idea what I wanted to do in college or beyond for that matter. But after taking this class I’ve learned how to harness my creative energy and put it into things that I love like film and creative writing. I have done things I could have never imagined myself doing. Working on our student films was such a great learning experience. On How to Get Good Grades Without Even Trying I learned to collaborate with others, learned how to shoot from different angles, act, and even edit a film! Throughout this whole class, I have pushed myself creatively and learned how to be proud of my work and not afraid to share it, especially In my creative writing. One of my most favorite creative writing projects was my short story on three best friends who form a girl group. Creating a new world with three-dimensional characters from nothing was a bit of a challenge for me, since I’m not in a band, nor do I play an instrument, but that only made me realize how much of my imagination I could use when making these characters.
Abigail Sinberg
Hi my name is Abby Sinberg! I am a senior and I have learned so much this year in ATCS. By trying all different art forms such as poetry, music, drawing, film making, and movie analysis, I have gained a new perspective on how to look at art. My favorite unit was the music lesson where we spent many days perfecting our bell-playing skills. At the end of the first semester we performed multiple holiday songs to different groups of peers. I was so impressed with how much we learned without having any previous classes. The class worked together to make music while having lots of fun. Outside of the classroom, I love to workout and make jewelry. I hope you all enjoy our work. Thank you!​
Hi, I’m Keely Sullivan and am a Senior in this Advances Topics and Creative Studies class. I have really enjoyed being a part of this class. One unique part of this year’s class is that it is all girls. Having a class like this in my senior year schedule has given me the opportunity to experience and grow my creative skills while having fun and spending making lasting memories with my peers, which I will be able to look back on once I am in college. I have always had an interest in film production and music, and this class has helped me expand my skills in those specific areas. During the winter season, all seventeen of us learned how to play the handbells for the first time. We learned how to read sheet music in harmony and play four different songs. This unit taught me to appreciate the complexity of reading, writing and creating music. This spring, we were assigned with the task of making our own movie. I had never known much about the editing process of a film, but after working with my group to cut clips, overlap audio and add sound effects, I can teach you how to do it! Our film making unit was my favorite because it allowed all of us to open our minds to the endless amounts of creativity. I can’t wait to continue to broaden the creative skills I learned throughout ATCS next year in college!
Keely Sullivan
Jamie Trope
Hi! My name is Jamie, and my favorite part about ATCS class was our poems unit. I enjoyed reading poetry from a variety of authors and then writing my own in my style and the styles of the other authors. As a creative scholar, I was excited to sign-up for this class at the beginning of the year, and I have enjoyed each successive unit in the class​. The favorite thing that I've created in class was my short film -- I am proud of what I was able to accomplish by myself in such a short span of time.
Emma Yurko
Hi!! My name is Emma Yurko. I learned that Advanced Topics in Creatives Studies was a class when I was a freshman applying for the Creative Scholar's program. As a creative scholar, ATCS is a required course; however, I would have taken it anyways. The course itself is my dream class. A class 100% dedicated to creativity and the various avenues for expression. I love drawing and painting, so the units that focused primarily on art were some of my favorites, although my favorite project, in particular, didn't involve art at all. It was from one of our first units on Kate Chopin's short story Désirée's Baby (I loved Désirée's Baby so much that I actually focused on it for one of my college essays). The southern gothic tale touches on race, gender, and class from a 19th-century perspective. The story ends with many unanswered questions, which as an extension of the assignment, we had to answer in our own continuations of the short story. It was really interesting getting to hear all of the vast takes on the story from my fellow classmates. ATCS has taught me so much in just a year about creativity and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I've loved being able to start my day off with ATCS every day this year and will miss it.