What students learn in the classroom is one thing. Meeting a person in the field is another.
When these two meet, it can seal a connection between students and passions permanently.
Screenwriter Meghan Ferrell Burke met with Coppell High School English teacher Matthew Bowden’s seventh period creative writing class virtually via Google Meet on April 13 to explain her experience with writing and answer questions.
Burke started by narrating her childhood, where she moved around frequently, with family in the military, and involved herself early in screenwriting at the New York Film Academy, later entering the Marine Corps.
“We got to shoot on 16 millimeter film on the backlots at Universal Studios, and it was wonderful,” Burke said. “That was my first taste of really what I wanted to do with my life. It was not until I was a junior in high school when I did Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. I was a junior in high school when 9/11 happened and I told my parents that I wanted to be a marine.”
While there, she met CHS special education teacher and lieutenant colonel Esther Gomez Splawn.
“I got in touch with Mrs. Burke through Esther Gomez Splawn,” Bowden said. “Something came up and I said ‘My kids are just about to start screenwriting.’ She said she was one of the writers on that show and she was like ‘I will put you in touch with her.’”
Using her skills for screenwriting and her experience in the Marine Corps, she worked on various shows related to the area.
“I started working on a show called Manhattan that was about the Manhattan Project in World War II,” Burke said. “Then I wrote on a show called ‘Outlander’ on Starz. After that I have been working on a show on Netflix that just came out called ‘Boots.”
Students asked questions regarding her experiences and received advice on storywriting processes.
“I have heard a really good analogy about getting into Hollywood,” Burke said. “It is like ‘How did you rob the bank?’ I can tell you how I robbed the bank, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is going to be a successful way for you to rob the bank.”
Advice provided helped students understand what they learned in class and how it could apply to their future.
“Because we are a creative writing class, it was very easy to connect with her,” junior Mariana Yamouni said. “It is really helpful to see someone who has made it and that they enjoy what they are doing.”
Burke’s detailed descriptions of inspirations and challenges provided insight to the students who love writing.
“It is one thing to read Stephen King’s works, but to have Stephen King here and telling them about the process would be incredible,” Bowden said. “Students meet Mrs. Burke and they see that you can really do this for a living and know this is real and not a pie in the sky dream.”
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