C.S. Lewis Summer Institute registrant Brandon Motter was recently featured in his Johns Creek High School’s PTSA newsletter “Inside the Coliseum.” Thanks to our generous donors, he was awarded a full tuition scholarship to the conference. If you attended the conference and have a similar story of how it impacted you, please share it with us!

Here’s the article (reprinted by permission):

September Student Highlight:

Brandon Motter

Fiction Writer Extraordinaire

 

Junior Brandon Motter recently attended a creative writing symposium in England at Oxford University and Cambridge University this past July and August. Here, in his own skilled style, is a description of how it all came about:

“My experience with Oxbridge began at the global launch of Vishal Mangalwadi’s most recent book, an event which was held at Perimeter Church. I was able to meet him and we spoke at length about his new book on the future of Western civilization. At one point, he handed me a pamphlet on a program called “Oxbridge,” a dual-track program held every third year in England which focuses on philosophy and the culture and on creative writing. With his encouragement, I applied.

A few weeks later I received confirmation that I had been accepted into the program–coupled with a most generous offer: a full tuition scholarship.

The 10-day academic symposia, conducted by the C.S. Lewis Foundation, brought in many famous philosophers, writers and scientists, including Cambridge Physicist John Polkinghorne (recently featured in USA Today), Chuck Colson and Os Guinness, while also featuring noted authors such as Michael Ward, Kevin Belmonte and Randy Alcorn, among others.

I anxiously awaited that day in late July when it would begin, and soon found myself standing in utter awe of the two most renowned universities in the world. I had been selected to participate in the creative writing workshop. There my talents were nurtured by the invaluable support and counsel of a university professor and many published authors. Those ten extraordinary days, so short, yet so meaningful, planted a seed within my heart–a deep desire to write fiction.

Though my days in England all too soon came to an end, their impact upon me continues to this day. I am now participating in the directed study program at Johns Creek, where my work continues to move forward. With an independent focus, the program provides a student limitless opportunity to investigate fields within their own interest. Whether in writing, or the sciences, or social studies, a young person can, and will, blossom as a direct result of their own personal drive to grow and develop.”

-JB Motter

Brandon continues to work on his novel and participates in a TAG Directed Study with Mr. Wellmaker as his Mentor at school. He also is a member of the Debate Team.