Ivy Brothers Case Study: Passion Project
The Disappearing Library: Testimonies of Vanishing Worlds
At Ivy Brothers, we've helped many students do projects in the humanities, history, literature, and so on. We've had students write books, create literary journals, and many other projects. One project that stands out is one of our students who created a project entitled The Disappearing Library: Testimonies of Vanishing Worlds. This case study highlights a student who combined creative writing and digital activism into a one-of-a-kind initiative, and the student was later accepted to Harvard, Yale, and Brown.
Case Study
A sophomore who was an international student that goes to a top boarding school in the United States engaged Ivy Brothers. The student was interested in studying English or Creative Writing, and also had a deep interest in languages, global history, and narrative ethics approached us with a desire to create a project rooted in storytelling and cultural preservation.
Passion Project Title:
The Disappearing Library: Testimonies of Vanishing Worlds
Concept Overview
The project documents the voices and memories of individuals from marginalized, displaced, or endangered communities-then fictionalizes their stories into short literary pieces to create a virtual 'library of voices on the verge of silence.'
But here's the twist: each story in the online archive is time-bound, designed to 'disappear' unless it's shared, saved, or passed on. This feature mirrors the fragility of real-world memory and culture. The mentor helped brainstorm this idea as the consultant and student discussed how oftentimes, throughout history, stories are lost in translation and are imperfect. The mentor during the brainstorming prompted the student, asking thoughtful questions like, "How do we keep these marginalized stories passed on? How can we use technology to ensure these stories are not lost?"
Some stories are available for 90 days, others 60-each with a ticking countdown to deletion. The project also integrates multilingual storytelling and translation theory. Stories appear alongside audio from the original speaker, and translations include notes on what meaning was lost or altered. Ivy Brothers assisted with finding linguists, postcolonial theorists, and translators to bring academic depth to the work.
Snapshot from the Mentor Brainstorming
Project Deliverables
1. Digital Archive Exhibit: - A virtual archive with short stories, original language audio, and translation footnotes. - Stories automatically 'fade' unless interacted with-engagement becomes a metaphor for cultural survival. 2. Printed Anthology: - A handcrafted print version of the project mailed to community libraries and diaspora centers.
3. Public Reading & Live Exhibit: - A small event hosted in collaboration with a local cultural nonprofit, where guests 'rescue' stories by reading them aloud.
From from the Public Reading Event with Guest Speaker from Harvard
4. Critical Essay: - A personal piece from the student on ethical storytelling, memory, and the emotional burden of translation.
🧠Admissions Positioning
At Ivy Brothers, we believe in having highly personalized, targeted positioning depending on the school and what the individual admission office may be looking for.
We ensured this project could be tailored to different college archetypes: - For Columbia, Yale, and Brown: the project was framed as narrative activism-blending literary theory, language, and ethics. - For Stanford and Princeton: it emphasized design thinking and cultural preservation through tech. - For creative writing programs: it positioned the student as an original voice committed to untold global stories.
Why This Works for Ivy Brothers
- Originality: The countdown mechanism created a real-time metaphor for cultural erasure-something Ivy Brothers Passion Project Case Study no other student had attempted.
- Intellectual Range: Demonstrated mastery of both creative craft and academic thought, from Chinua Achebe to Walter Benjamin.
- Admissibility Edge: The project was cited in supplemental essays, discussed in interviews, and earned the student recognition from a national literary magazine and a Professor of English Language & Letters at Harvard University.
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