Valerie Brady has always had a passion for writing. At 18 years old, she has written four novels, the longest one being 81,000 words. 

This passion for writing even allowed her to write a full novel in one month during last year’s National Novel Writing Month. Despite her story’s impressive size of 56,000 words, Valerie says that she did not need the full month, stating that the project took just two weeks.

This becomes less surprising considering Valerie’s lifelong love of creative writing. She has been creating worlds and writing stories since the first grade. “If there’s just one constant in my life, it’s always been writing,” she said. 

Her dedication to her craft brought her to St. John’s College in Annapolis. She says that St. Johns is an incredibly unique school, an opinion shared by The New York Times, which has described St. Johns as “the most contrarian college in America.”

Valerie initially did not want to apply. But on the day that the application was due, she decided to submit hers to “see what happens.”

A month later, she got her acceptance letter, along with a presidential scholarship. “I just really already love the college I’m going to,” she said. 

But Valerie’s success did not stop after applying to college. She applied her book binding skills to lead a months-long project for the Spanish Honor Society. The group bound notebooks to send to a school in the Dominican Republic. 

The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese awarded her a “Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica Activity of the Year” Award in conjunction with the Spanish Honor Society. Their bookbinding will be mentioned in a conference done by the AATSP in Puerto Rico.

Her advice to every student is: “If you’re thinking about pursuing your passion, just go for it.”