Quinn, second from right, at the Colosseum in Rome.
For the past three summers, Quinn Leonard ’25 has taken his academic pursuits on the road. After two summers of studying psychology in the UK, Quinn was looking for a new subject and new surroundings. Inspired by his upper mid English course and his interest in a career in writing, Quinn enrolled in the Creative Writing in the Land Gods and Heroes program and packed his bags for Rome.
The course was led by writers, storytellers, visual artists, and historians. With Roman mythology and a city steeped in more than 3,000 years of history as his inspiration, backdrop, and classroom, Quinn explored the basics of storytelling, analyzed stories that have shaped culture for millennia, and developed techniques for crafting vibrant and enduring stories of his own.
“On Mondays, we met in the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) learning center, which had been home to a fifteenth-century Cardinal,” Quinn recalls. “We had a creative writing class in the morning, during which we worked on our projects and learned mythology. Then, we had an Italian language class to practice basic phrases and hand gestures. On the remaining weekdays, we went to museums with our professor.”
The museum tours were the foundation and core of the writing assignments and were designed to build creative connections between classical heroes, gods, and the contemporary world.
“After touring a museum, our professor gave us a writing prompt based on one of the works we had viewed there,” says Quinn. “We began with group work, giving backstories to the statues. Then, we transitioned to individual poems and short stories. For the culminating project, the prompt was to make a creative work involving some aspect of Roman mythology. I decided to write and perform a play with five of my friends.
“Through this program, I learned that co-writing creative works can be a lot more fun and successful than writing them individually; there is more in-the-moment feedback and better representation of characters as real people,” says Quinn. “I think the program enhanced my current style of writing by gaining insight from my program-mates; it also helped me be more thoughtful and reflective in my college essays.
Quinn’s travel was made possible in part by a Kilbourne Summer Enrichment Fund grant. Established by John Kilbourne ’58, in memory of his parents Samuel W. and Evelyn S. Kilbourne, the Kilbourne Summer Enrichment Fund provides students with opportunities in the summer to participate in enriching programs in the arts.