This month, while most students at SMKN 3 Manado were focused on studying for final exams and practicals, ETA Harrison Crawford was busy preparing his own project. In preparation for AMINEF’s upcoming WORDS competition, Harrison began hosting story workshop sessions for students interested in entering. Out of the 53 student signups, only 20 will make it through the screening round to be able to compete in the local, school-wide competition, and only one will be chosen to move forward to the final national competition in Jakarta.

Harrison began the preliminary workshop series with a brief explanation of the basic story structure and a review of winning stories from previous years and what made them good. Students were then challenged to come up with 2-3 solid basic premises and then practice writing a basic story structure for their favorite. This flexible writing style helped students avoid getting stuck halfway through the process, as many students nearly completed their stories before realizing they had another idea they liked more. Harrison will meet with every student in the upcoming weeks to discuss their last-minute concerns before the local competition set for January 12. While Harrison is putting in a lot of effort to make the competition fun and cooperative for all participants, the students are positively buzzing with excitement about potentially winning and moving on to compete in Jakarta.

Harrison Crawford is currently teaching at SMKN 3 Manado, North Sulawesi.