It started with a single summer fellowship. A small group of writers, mentors and a goal of giving students a space to write without boundaries. The founders said that over time, that initial effort expanded to the multidimensional creative nonfiction writing program that it has become today.

Each year, the Whipple Writing Program, a competitive initiative that helps high school students develop their skills in writing, offers students opportunities to engage in creative nonfiction with activities like the Whipple Writing Fellowship and This Brookline Life during the summer and the BHS Story Hour during the school year at the high school.

English teacher and Whipple Program Advisor Evan Mousseau said the program has grown over the years. Its first year, it was just a summer fellowship, the year after, a Moth-style story hour was added and most recently, they added a podcasting program.

“That sort of growth, from what was once just known as the Whipple Writing Fellowship to what is now seen as the Whipple Writing Program, which offers all these different opportunities for students with different interests, has really taken form and expanded in cool ways,” Mousseau said.

Mousseau has worked on expanding the program along with English teacher Emma Siver by introducing new creative nonfiction styles that students were not familiar with. The shift is an effort to expand the ways students can express themselves, he said.

“Over the past several years, Ms. Siver and I have really worked to expose students to as many different creative examples of what creative nonfiction can look like as we can, so that students feel comfortable experimenting with form, structure and creating something that feels both authentic to them and something that they maybe don’t have the opportunity to write in their classes during school,” Mousseau said.

After the first year of the Whipple summer fellowship, Jen Martin, Director of the Whipple Writing Program and Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator, said she met with the Gladstone and Whipple families, who fund the program in honor of their son, David Whipple, and together they decided to change the program’s genre focus from open choice to only creative nonfiction.

“That first summer, we didn’t hone in on the genre of writing and everybody chose creative writing. The Whipple Gladstone family, who funded the program, [and I] had a discussion about how we hoped for more kids to choose creative nonfiction writing. That is what’s missing from schools, there is pretty much nothing for creative nonfiction,” Martin said, “Then we were like, let’s just say creative nonfiction for the next year, and now that is the driving force of every single part of the program.”

Senior Simone Zierten-Singleton attended the Whipple Writing Fellowship last year. She said she incorporated the creative nonfiction styles Mousseau taught into her own writing piece.

“It definitely came through, the idea of being able to organize your essay in certain ways. Having your story influence your writing was something new that I learned about,” Zierten-Singleton said. “I incorporated some of the lessons we learned into my own essay. But also, it gave me a new way to look at the craft as a whole.”

According to Martin, one challenge that the program faced was recruiting students who were the right fit.

“The challenge was trying to convince the right kids to apply. It is not for everyone. It’s not a program to make you into a writer, this is a very niche learning how to develop a skill you already probably have into something really sophisticated and professional,” Martin said.

In the spring of 2025, one of the program’s new additions was a field trip to ‘The Moth’ show in Boston. Senior Dani Lyons said the program’s field trip had the biggest impact on her as a writer.

“We went on a field trip to see an actual ‘The Moth’, a famous storytelling group, in Boston. We saw a bunch of adults that were selling their stories and it was nice to see everybody being so vulnerable, sharing their stories for the sake of performance,” Lyons said.

Mousseau said that the field trip inspired the students in their own writings.

“It was a great night and I think the stories reflected that. The folks telling their stories after were inspired to play with how they were telling them and really lean into the performative aspect of the storytelling in a way that they hadn’t fully in years before,” Mousseau said, “So now that’s got to be a core part of the process, going together to this event.”

According to Martin, the adjustments made over the years to the program are designed to help students’ development as writers and storytellers. Martin said one of the most meaningful parts of her role is witnessing students’ growth from start to finish.

“I’m really involved in the choosing process, and at the end, when they’re performing their last piece,” Martin said. “I enjoy seeing the difference between when they apply and the little kernel of an idea that they have, versus months later, when they finish the piece, seeing how much they’ve grown and matured.”