Severn News

Student-run Literary Magazine Shines a Light on Middle School Creativity

8/18/2023

Released just before spring break, the Admirals' Pen literary magazine is an example of what our students can accomplish when given the freedom and responsibility to shine. The magazine is edited, formatted, and published once a year by students in Ms. Laura Drossner’s Admirals' Pen elective, using submissions from the entire Middle School community. The Admirals' Pen is a creative outlet for aspiring Middle School writers and artists, one that builds camaraderie and provides our students an authentic space to celebrate the many talents of their peers.

The Class

The Admirals’ Pen is an elective for 7th and 8th-grade students that meets twice a week during the third quarter of each year. The goal of the class is to edit and publish a literary magazine for our Middle School. Although any student can sign up for the elective, Ms. Drossner personally reaches out to any student that might be a good fit for the class.

“I don’t think kids always realize the skill set they can bring to Admirals’ Pen so I reach out to anyone I think would really thrive in the class. Sometimes students don’t recognize their own talents. They may not think they are the best writer, but they may be great at critiquing, organizing, or delegating. We need a good mix of creative writers, technical writers, editors, and project managers. There’s a place for anyone who cares about making the best magazine for our school.” — Ms. Drossner

The driving force behind this elective is the students themselves. They have guidelines to follow in terms of page count and formatting, but the Admirals’ Pen team members create the organizational structure, reach out to their peers for submissions, edit and proofread the work, and manage all communication with contributing authors and artists. They take ownership over the process and are eager to try new strategies to improve the magazine from year to year.

“Kids sometimes submit work from class, like the 8th-grade civic responsibility speeches and the Huck Finn scene rewrites. If you read those and don't know what the assignment is, you might not get it so this year I added an introduction for those sections to make it more clear for the reader.” — Daniel Berlin ‘22

Two Severn School middle school students sit at their desks working on laptops — *Daniel Berlin ‘22 and Cole Keefer ‘23*

Ms. Drossner also gives her Admirals’ Pen students the opportunity to learn from those with experience in the writing and publishing world. She invited Severn parent and author Jeff Gunhus to the class to talk about his writing process and to give our budding authors inspiration and words of wisdom.

“Writers write, but writers also read. The more you read, the more you’re going to see what other writers are doing and it becomes a common language you share with other storytellers.” — Jeff Gunhus

Severn School middle school students sit at their desks listening to a guest speaker. — *Jeff Gunhus shares his experience with the class.*

Grace Fieni ‘18 also visited the class to share her experience working on the Upper School literary magazine, The Mainsheet, and to encourage our Admirals’ Pen crew to join their publishing team when they move on to high school. Grace was part of the small group of students who started the Admirals' Pen from the ground up when she was in middle school and was excited to see how it has grown.

Severn School middle school students sit at their desks listening to a student guest speaker. — **Grace Fieni** ‘18 talks about working on The Mainsheet.

Putting The Magazine Together

To encourage submissions from their peers, students from the elective make presentations at morning meeting, go from class to class, and reach out to individual students. Once the work is submitted, they use a system of Dropbox folders to organize the submissions, using a set of criteria to evaluate each piece. Their goal is to ensure that the magazine shows a balanced range of talent and is enjoyable to read.

“We have certain people on certain jobs. Some people look at artwork and others look at writing. We ask ‘Is this interesting? Does this make me want to read or see more?’ If it does, we edit it and put it in the ‘edited and ready to go in’ folder. We have a few people review the work together so it’s not just one person’s opinion.” — Emily Giorgio '22

Three Severn School middle school students look at a laptop together. — **Emily Giorgio** ‘22, **Fiona Griesser** ‘22, and **Rachel Weinberg** ‘22

“We have to be careful too. If we read something and think it’s really great or funny, we have to make sure we are saying that because of the work, not just because it’s a friend or someone we know.” — Margaret Cravens ‘23

Building Community Through the Arts (and Coffee!)

In addition to publishing the magazine, The Admirals' Pen also sponsors two coffeehouses each year in the fall and spring where many contributing authors and artists present their work to families, teachers, and friends. In the spirit of a real coffeehouse, they serve coffee, hot chocolate and treats while organizing the line-up of students and making sure that the show goes off without a hitch. Just like the magazine itself, the coffeehouse is run by our students.

Severn School middle school student sings in front of a microphone. — **Zoe Smith-Joledo** ‘24 performs at the fall coffeehouse.

“This is definitely a niche for kids. It’s just different from a lot of the other activities we have at school. You don’t have to be a great athlete, you don’t have to be overly confident. This is a place where you can get up, you can take risks, you can make mistakes. It may not be 100% polished, but that’s not the point. The point is that you can express yourself and practice public speaking and presentation skills in a supportive environment. They organize the whole show and cheer each other on. Those are some of my favorite times of the year.” — Ms. Drossner

A Place For Every Student

Admirals' Pen students get the experience of working on a real publishing team, while students in our community get to showcase work we might not otherwise see. This collaborative effort gives voice to any student who wants to be heard. Read the latest issue!