First Presbyterian Christian Academy students traveled to Brewton-Parker College to attend a one-day Young Writers Conference to learn how to strengthen their writing skills and collected $30,000 in scholarships as a result.
The event was open to all the high school students, and it was FPCA’s third year of attending the conference. Scholarships were not awarded in previous years, but smaller items were given as tokens of excellence in writing, former attendees said.
Students sat in workshops taught by college professors for each session and wrote on deadline to compete for scholarships to be awarded for the top papers.  
Six winners were selected from FPCA to receive literary scholarships to attend Brewton-Parker, a private Baptist college.
 “We’re very proud of them and their hard work and their diligence,” FPCA Principal  Shannon Hickey said.
Students had the opportunity to choose from six different workshops that focused on everything from film analysis to newspaper writing.
Nicole Lartigue, 16, won first place and an $8,000 scholarship for her article on film analyzing. Cody Smith, 16, Emily Hickey, 16, and Zachary James, 17, all received second place and $6,000 scholarships. Vaughn Head, 16, won third place for a $4,000 scholarship. Jenna Hamilton, 16, won fourth place.
“I really enjoyed it because I’m their English teacher and this is all kind of what they do on their own initiative [since I’m not a creative writing teacher],” FPCA English teacher Ashley Walden said. “I’m really proud of them.”
Although the students are not sure if they will accept the scholarships and attend Brewton-Parker in a few years — all but one are juniors — the experience was enough to get them excited about moving into a college setting one day soon.
For Smith, it even changed his mind about going to college; he wasn’t thinking of going before attending the workshop and wasn’t even really interested in writing.
“Before this, I did not have my eyes set on college, so this is really giving me a chance to see what college is all about,” the sophomore said. “It was weird — I’m not into writing much, but when I went to the workshop … it [writing] is actually pretty cool now.”
All the students agreed that although the timed writings were a little stressful, it wasn’t as if they were being graded for their efforts. Professors even gave little tips in the margins to let students know how to improve their craft.
“There’s something cool about getting feedback from a professor. That’s what the feedback you’ll be getting in a few years [is like],” Hamilton said. “I think it really re-sparks your interest in writing.”