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          King’s Scholar is a program that is aimed at “intellectually curious students”, and of one its students, Andera Novak, certainly fits the bill. 

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          Novak was driven by a need for personal development and recognition from an early age. As a child, she took part in the Western Fair’s Rise 2 Fame Youth Talent Search and made it to the finals. Now, this London-born third-year student immerses herself fully in the spirit of challenge and determination. “I don’t really sleep,” she says. This is certainly not surprising, considering the heavy load she allots to her daily schedule: between her six credits this academic year, her part-time job as a customer experience representative at Indigo, her work as a creative editor for King’s student publication The Regis, and volunteering for the Read-Play-Discover program at London’s Public Library, there surely isn’t much free time left for some shut-eye.

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          When asked why she gave up on her singing aspiration, she blamed her interest in writing as a distraction. “After getting to the finals for one of the junior rounds, a vocal coach scouted me, and I ended up working with him for about a year or so after that. Ultimately, I ended up not pursuing music in that way because I found myself avoiding doing lessons in order to write, but at the time it made me so excited to be recognized”. Her eventual decision to steer away from singing and instead pursue a writing career benefitted from a relatively new paved road.

 

          With numerous campuses nationwide now offering a wide array of undergraduate courses and even degrees in creative writing, this era is relatively propitious to aspiring writers. The burgeoning industry arose as an expected offspring of our eminent digital age, and maybe also, as some scholars have argued, as a direct response to its promotion in popular television series such as HBO’s Girls. Whatever the case may be, Novak did not waste any time in putting the opportunities this paradigm shift has engendered to good use.

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          King Scholar’s interdisciplinary approach means her creative writing minor has much knowledge and inspiration to draw from. This gives her the possibility to feed her passion, as well as strengthen the confidence needed to pursue it professionally. The variety of courses and seminars available to her, such as To Make a Long Story Short and Writing Fantasy, are not only fun and unique but also applicative. “It allows me the option for a hybrid thesis, and shows me proper form and technique,” she explained.

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          Her involvement with The Regis means she gets first-hand experience with many aspects of the publishing industry, a field she says she considers her priority. “My first impression of Andera is that I thought she seemed very intelligent and passionate about writing,” says Anastazia Csegeny, her editor-in-chief, whom she met through a writing group at the library, which is also the place where Novak does her volunteering work. The Read-Play-Discover program she is involved with there has had the benefit of making her appreciate the impact literature can have on young children. Although she would love to go into publishing, she says the experience of using literary-based games to make reading more fun for kids has fostered a desire to pursue an MA in children’s literature.

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          Until then, Novak keeps feeding her curiosity and challenging herself by contributing to The Regis, HerCampus, an online magazine made for and by female college students, as well as by participating in various writing contests. Among some of the accomplishments she prides herself most in, NaNoWriMo, the famous online annual event aimed at motivating participants to write 50,000 words in one month, takes the cake. “I did it purely for myself,” she says. “It was nice, as much as it was really stressful!”