Writing and Communication | Crafting YOUR Story for Success

About the course

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!

Application dates for the upcoming cycle will be announced soon.

Stay tuned for updates on the next cycle—follow us on social media and check our website for announcements.

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Programme Dates: to be announced for the upcoming cycle.*

*tentative schedule, subject to change

Eligibility

• High school students from India and across the world are eligible to apply.
• Students should be entering or in grades 9-12 as in summer 2025.
• Students should be comfortable with written & spoken English, which will be the medium of instruction for the courses.
• Students should have consistent access to the Internet and a computer that aligns with the recommended minimum specifications.
• Students should have a good and consistent academic record.

Who is this course for?

This 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.

What do I take away?

By the end of the programme, you will:

1. Write your own unique and compelling story that captures your authentic and singular voice.
2. Creatively & impactfully develop your social media profiles to stand out in a crowd of ‘me too’ content.
3. Develop a winning college application essay/personal statement/supplemental essay/internship cover letter that takes you closer to your professional aspirations.
4. Learn about the strengths and weaknesses of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to elevate your writing process. Enhance creativity and productivity with features like automated brainstorming and style suggestions.
5. Identify your strengths and weaknesses as a writer to become a more confident writer.
6. Learn from the best (and worst) examples of personal stories.
7. An opportunity to get mentored by publishers and get published.*

*Only for selected students, based on the discretion of the faculty

Programme Details

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: What are some related fields that can be explored based on this course topic? What are the future trends in the related fields? How can the course learning help the student enhance their college applications?	Mentoring:  You are encouraged to ask questions to the mentor around the following aspects: What are some sub-topics to learn/practice beyond the course? What is the scope of the course topic if the student wants to pursue/study it further? What are some personal projects that can be taken up outside of the course based on the knowledge gained in the course?

 

Capstone Project

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.

Faculty

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

Grading, Assessments, Certification and much more

All Ashoka Horizons courses offer a certificate on satisfactory completion of the course.

• Essay evaluation – 50%
• Class participation & in class assessment – 20%
• Graded short writing assignments – 30%

 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:

• Successful Course Completion Certificate
• Letters of Academic Achievement to top 3 students based on exceptional performance 
• Potential opportunity to get published* 

 *For select students, subject to discretion of the faculty

IT Requirements

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