Alex Fagell '26, Sidwell Friends
On Feb. 1, Write to Right held its first student-led writing workshop with third-grade students from Garrison Elementary School, teaching creative writing skills as a means toward social justice.
Serving as an after-school program for Kid Power, an organization striving to provide educational resources to underserved communities, Write to Right aims to teach creative writing to low-income students to develop self-expression, communication abilities, and imagination.
To raise money and buy materials for students at the weekly workshops, Write to Right held a fundraiser at the recent GEICO Girls Basketball Invitational Tournament.
Kid Power director Sterling Pino-DeGale explained that “Write to Right embraces Kid Power’s goal of empowering youth leadership and giving back to the community. Students in every classroom level I have been a part of have struggled with writing, but Write to Right helps to solve a lot of these problems by providing a low-stakes environment to have fun with writing.”
In the first session, Garrison Elementary students participated in an activity known as “Fortunately, Unfortunately,” where the students narrated a story by alternating between a positive and a negative event. Students then wrote their own stories in the same format, emphasizing the skills of creativity and imagination that were taught in the group activity.
Sophomore and student writing instructor Krish Batra found that “the activity allowed the students to engage in whatever crazy and fun things they wanted to say. Many kids were initially hesitant to participate and then came out of their comfort zone and offered strong and creative suggestions.”
Batra shared that he really enjoyed the first session with the students, as they were very engaged and having fun. He admitted he was initially worried he would have trouble teaching them, but said that they were outgoing and thrilled to learn from the Write to Right curriculum.
Ethical Leadership Coordinator Alex McCoy was also impressed with the first session, observing that the students were really excited to be at the workshops. Pino-DeGale similarly expressed the success of the first session and students’ excitement to continue the curriculum each week.
Write to Right has also held several events with Free Minds, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting self-expression among the incarcerated through creative writing and poetry.
McCoy added, “Free Mind’s goal of teaching creative writing skills to incarcerated persons helped inspire Write to Right’s curriculum, as it demonstrated the value in teaching people, especially those who don’t have access, the importance of creative writing.”
Several of Free Mind’s events helped Tara Prakash, the founder of Write to Right, formulate the curriculum, as both Free Minds and Write to Right emphasize the importance of giving back to the community by providing positive feedback on writing.
“Free Minds and Write to Right both encourage people to express themselves through writing and creativity, allowing people to develop the vital skill of self-expression and generally appreciate the art of creative writing,” said Batra.
