Capstone Project Highlight Series: Madalena Hughes ’21
Each year, a number of junior and senior class members choose to participate in the MFS Capstone Program. Designed to challenge students who wish to pursue advanced study in a particular field, the program asks participants to produce scholarly work by engaging in independent research and/or creative development under the guidance of an MFS faculty member. This series highlights recently completed projects of the 18 senior students in the program.
As someone with synesthesia − a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway − Madi Hughes ’21 experiences writing and art in a unique and exciting way. Her senses are able to inspire her writing. In her words, “drawings are … produced by analyzing the sounds, sights, and emotions of [my] dreams and their synesthetic relationships, translated into the space between the figures, their colors, and shapes drawn. [My] poems are then composed [using] these illustrations and writing, in one sitting, everything perceived.”
When it came time to choose a subject for her capstone project, Madi chose to focus on her love of writing and further pursue her poetry, as well as the process of becoming a published author. Her research consisted of three parts: documenting the stories of other young authors, constructing a Young Author’s Pamphlet Guide to Publication, and listing literary magazines and competitions for authors to get published in collections. While the pandemic challenged her in that she had to complete her project both on her own timeline and without the in-person help of an advisor, she was ultimately successful in creating new works of poetry, crafting a guide to publishing, and becoming published herself.
Madi’s publication guide, author website, published Chapbook Bears and Baubles, and more can be found on her capstone page. Bears and Baubles is currently available on the Barnes and Noble website and will soon be available on Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks.