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Do you wonder why you are doing what you are doing? Do you wonder how pursuing a certain course or participating in a competition is helping you build your career? Do you wonder what is the legacy you want to create with your professional career?
You are already an Achiever, but are you good at telling a story about your achievements? Every good story about yourself starts with who you are. This good story is unique to you and brings out your authenticity. As you set out to build your own life story, embark on this journey of portraying the best version of yourself, for success.
Crafting Your Story for Success is a live interactive course that will take you through the 3 stages of building your own unique story for success. The course will start with self-discovery – the honest process of finding what is powerfully YOU. The second stage is self-expression – crafting your story in YOUR unique voice. The third stage is self-portrayal & branding – writing your story for success, whether for your college essay, your SoP or your social media profiles.
The course will help you storyboard your life and then wisely select the aspects that matter in your college application essays and social media profiles to create an impactful presence. This will be brought out through many interactive elements in the course such as use of AI tools, group discussions, peer collaboration, writing workshops with experts, thorough reviews and actionable feedback sessions. We will specifically dive into the use and misuse of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini as we focus on how these tools can make your writing better or worse.
During the course, we will deconstruct and critique the best examples of writing about one’s own self and learn some golden rules about writing about one’s own self. The sessions and writing workshops focus on not only understanding what is ‘good’ writing but more importantly, understanding the ingredients of ‘good’ writing. All in all, getting your college application essay submission ready will be a hands-on capstone project in this course.
What’s more? The top 1% students from the course will have an opportunity to meet potential publishers and land a publishing and mentorship opportunity with them!
Enroll Now Existing User? Log InThis course is for high schoolers who are in the critical phase of building their life story for their college applications, group discussions and their profiles across social media platforms.
Prerequisites: High proficiency in written & spoken English. You will be required to submit your latest mark sheet in the application form.
By the end of the programme, you will:
*Only for selected students, based on the discretion of the faculty
| Week | Lecture Module | Project Module |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Introduction & Self-discovery: Who you are and why do you choose to be YOU
Engage in self-discovery by figuring out your authentic identity – your own honest and powerful self and focus on how to proudly be yourself. |
Writing workshop: Reflective writing & essay outline
Reflect on your individuality, experiences, choices, passions and achievements and draft an outline for your college application essay based on the reflection. Get personalized mentorship and actionable feedback on your essay outline. |
| Week 2 | Self-expression & crafting Your Story: Articulate your story with your signature voice
Unlock the power of your signature voice and creativity and enhance your personal narrative by applying foundational elements of storytelling, including structure, voice and perspective. |
Writing workshop: Writing an impactful introduction and drafting your essay
Create an impactful introduction by including key elements such as hooks, context, values & beliefs. Learn strategies for drafting your essay based on the outline you created, ensuring clarity and coherence throughout your writing. |
| Week 3 | Self-portrayal & personal branding: Your presence, self-presentation and brand
Write a compelling narrative that reflects your strengths, achievements and aspirations, and resonates with your target audience. |
Writing workshop & social media analysis: Revising the introduction, body of the essay
Revise the introduction and refine your essay further on three elements: authenticity, consistency and differentiation. Gain insights into optimizing your social media and professional profiles to enhance your visibility and impact. |
| Week 4 | The Art of revision: Read, revise, refine
Practice effective revision techniques to enhance your drafts, focusing on content, organization and grammar. |
Guest speaker session: Presenting your story
Present your story to a guest speaker and polish it further by getting expert guidance and actionable one-to-one feedback. |
| Week 5 | Counselling:
Get a chance to ask questions to the faculty and the mentor and get their answers and perspective. You are encouraged to ask questions to the faculty around the following aspects:
|
Mentoring:
You are encouraged to ask questions to the mentor around the following aspects:
|
Getting your college application ready is going to be your capstone project for this course. This will include three hands-on writing workshops which will focus on reflective writing, outline of the essay, your own introduction in the essay, body of the essay and multiple drafts of the essay. At the end of the project, you will get actionable feedback to make your essay submission ready.
Naincy Catherine works with the High School Programmes Team at Ashoka University & is a trained Sociologist. She is an expert on writing pedagogy and has worked with hundreds of students on their personal statements, application essays, SOPs, and academic essays. She has a Masters and M.Phil. in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics and had earlier taught at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Jesus and Mary College, O.P. Jindal Global University, and Ashoka University. She also writes regularly on higher education, educational policy, and the art of writing.
Grading, Assessments, Certification and much more
All Ashoka Horizons courses offer a certificate on satisfactory completion of the course.
Class participation will be assessed based on your active engagement in live sessions, contributions to discussion forums, and involvement in Teaching Fellow-led activities.
Achieve More…with Horizons:
*For select students, subject to discretion of the faculty
This programme is administered through an online platform. Students are expected to have a foundational understanding of computer usage, including but not limited to sending emails and conducting Internet searches. Consistent access to the Internet and a computer that aligns with the recommended minimum specifications are also requisite for participation in the programme.
Have a question about Ashoka Horizons Achievers Programme? Write to us on horizons@ashoka.edu.in
Krittika Bhattacharjee
Assistant Professor of Academic Writing, Ashoka University
Ph.D. University of Edinburgh
Schedule:
May 17, 2025 (Saturday) – June 14, 2025 (Saturday)*
Naincy Catherine
Writing Pedagogy Expert
M.Phil. (Sociology), Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
Schedule:
May 17, 2025 (Saturday) – June 14, 2025 (Saturday)*
Dr Brainerd Prince
Associate Professor, Plaksha University
PhD, Middlesex University
Schedule:
May 17, 2025 (Saturday) – June 14, 2025 (Saturday)*
Nakul Singh Sawhney
Visiting Faculty, Media Studies, Ashoka University
BA (H) English, Kirori Mal College, Delhi University, Certificate in Direction, Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune
Schedule:To be announced*
Prof Aalok Thakkar
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Ashoka University
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Schedule:May 17, 2025 (Saturday) – June 14, 2025 (Saturday)*
Prof Debayan Gupta
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Ashoka University
PhD, Yale University
Schedule:May 17, 2025 (Saturday) – June 14, 2025 (Saturday)*
“I learned the different writing styles people use. Especially in group projects when we got to read peer’s essay I got an insight on what others often focus on that I could improve.”
“It will definitely help since I now know what to do for my college essay. It is not as intimidating anymore. This will assist the experience a lot since it is an extremely important part of applications.”
Nakul Singh Sawhney
Visiting Faculty, Media Studies, Ashoka University
BA (H) English, Kirori Mal College, Delhi University, Certificate in Direction, Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune
Schedule:To be announced*
Navyug Mohnot
Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University
Schedule:May 17, 2025 (Saturday) – June 14, 2025 (Saturday)*
Krittika Bhattacharjee
Assistant Professor of Academic Writing, Ashoka University
Ph.D. University of Edinburgh
Schedule:
May 17, 2025 (Saturday) – June 14, 2025 (Saturday)*
