1. Why did you choose SCA? What are you studying?
I am a screenwriting major doing my thesis in comedy half-hour television. Before coming to SCA I wrote mostly prose and some playwriting, but when I visited the campus in high school I fell in love with it. I'd always loved watching movies growing up - my parents raised me on TCM and foreign films - but no one had ever presented screenwriting as a potential career path.

 So many of the writers I admired came through SCA, and I love the intensive, writers' workshop environment, so it was a perfect fit!

2. What has been your biggest challenge so far in your time here?
My biggest challenge so far has been figuring out which form of screenwriting I want to pursue. I like writing for both film and television, and tones that bend comedy and drama, and there is some pressure to limit yourself to one path. Luckily, the industry is heading in a direction where those distinctions are more malleable, and in my time here I've gotten to explore all different kinds of forms and genres before choosing my thesis.

3. Is there a project you are working (or have completed) that you're especially proud of? 
Right now I'm working on a thesis project that's a dark comedy about a family in post-9/11 New Jersey. It's a challenge to tackle coming to grips with mortality and other dark themes through a comedic lens, but the story is a personal one for me and I'm excited to make it my capstone project. 

4. Any advice for prospective students who would like to study in your division?
Write something that makes you excited and reflects what you admire in other people's writing, not what you think other people expect from you or think you're good at.