At just 16, Tomi Brunton made history as the youngest-ever editor-in-chief of Campus Current, AACC’s student newspaper.
A homeschooled high school junior, Brunton began taking college courses at AACC through the ECAP program to challenge them academically and gain real-world experience.
“I could get really good on the academic side through homeschooling,” Brunton said, “But it was nice to get some of that social aspect from AACC.” They also mentioned how it was nice to get grades from someone other than their mom.
Brunton joined Campus Current on their very first day at AACC. Inspired by a speech from legendary journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during a student press conference that semester, they were hooked.
They quickly rose through the ranks becoming associate editor by their second semester and editor-in-chief the following year. In just that short time, they had written over 110 stories.
But it was through writing those stories that Brunton discovered their deeper passion – creative writing. After winning AACC’s League for Innovation award for a short story, they became managing editor of Amaranth, the college’s student arts journal.
Now preparing to attend St. John’s College in Annapolis, Brunton is diving headfirst into a curriculum rooted in the classics. Their goal? To become a novelist. They’re already 60,000 words into a draft.
“I’ve always wanted to be a writer,” Brunton said. “Taking classes here and talking with professors here has made me realize that I could actually turn that into a career.”
While fiction is the dream, Brunton is also considering graduate school and possibly becoming a professor as another way to share their love of stories and ideas. Whether in the classroom or on the page, Brunton’s next chapter is already being written.