Thomas Darnell and Camilla Downs are both graduating this May (Thomas with a degree in creative writing and digital interactive games and Camilla with a degree in creative writing and social justice) and despite Thomas’ contention that taking classes with Camilla is about the same as taking classes with anyone else, there’s one big difference: Camilla is Thomas’ mother. The mother-son duo found their way to their majors through their shared love of reading and writing.
Camilla recognized Thomas’ love of reading when Thomas (they/them) was a child and did everything she could to foster that love. A precocious child, Thomas requested that they go to the library every day and Camilla honored those requests. Thomas’ reading habits were born out of a love of learning. “I just like learning new things for the sake of it,” they said. From a young age, Thomas could be found reading everything from dictionaries and encyclopedias to books about coding and piloting. Now, they read more creative work (they’re currently reading the novel "Sacred and Terrible Air") in preparation for their eventual plan to design narratives for games.
Associate Professor Jared Stanley currently has both Camilla and Thomas in his poetry workshop. “They both have strong perspectives on poetry and they’re really engaged during class time. And their work is really different–Thomas’ poetry is dense and allusive, while Camilla’s work has a strength and authority that comes from long experience,” Stanley said.
The two students are also taking another creative writing class together with Assistant Professor Afsheen Farhadi, who initially had some concerns. “When I learned Camilla and Thomas were mother and son and both in my Craft and Forms class, I worried about the dynamic, imagining the horror show that would have resulted from me and my mom being in the same class,” Farhadi said. “But Camilla and Thomas work so well together. They're both active participants who each offer their own distinct insights into the novels we read. It's been a joy working with them this semester.”
Thomas enjoys when Camilla references stories from Thomas’ childhood, including the time they “proclaimed to be an alien.” Camilla has also called the experience of learning alongside her son as “fantastic.” Being able to see Thomas as a student has made her even prouder of what Thomas has accomplished and who they are growing into as a person.
Camilla’s path to earning her degree has been more circuitous than Thomas’, having returned to college after a ten-year career as a paralegal. She jokingly described herself as “a transfer student from the Ice Ages.” Initially, Camilla had planned to take a year off after her eldest child moved out, but concerns over potential threats to federal funding for students prompted her to “close [her] eyes and jump.” She dove right into the deep end of the pool, continuing to work part-time at NCED FNN (Nevada Center for Excellence in Disabilities, Family Navigation Network), single parenting and taking five classes during each of the last three semesters.
An interdisciplinary degree in English and social justice was a natural fit for Camilla, who has been writing essays, memoir poetry since about 2010. “I’ve put myself through this two-year intense whirlwind to gain a formal writing education to plant solid roots underneath my desire to write,” Camilla said. She also wants to combine social justice topics, including disability, queer and feminist studies, since they represent areas that intersect with her and her children’s lives. Camilla’s oldest child, Lillian, has a rare chromosome deletion and level two autism, which has inspired Camilla’s work as an advocate.
Both Thomas and Camilla will continue to develop as writers after graduation. Thomas has been admitted to the 夜色视频, College of Liberal Arts' MFA program in poetry and Camilla plans to take a year-long break before attending a low-residency MFA program in poetry and creative nonfiction. She loves attending Monday Night Poetry at Shim’s and performs her spoken word poetry when she does so. One of her poems recently received an honorable mention for South Florida Poetry Journal’s 2026 Maureen Seaton Poetry Prize. In the last year, Thomas has had poems published in and Brushfire: Literary and Arts Journal.
For both Camilla and Thomas, walking across the stage at commencement this May will represent the ending of one chapter and the beginning of the next. As Camilla recalled Thomas saying as a child, “My life is like a book and someone is reading it.”
