When ink-spiration strikes: The Inkwell Project

WELL-ING UP WITH WORDS Elly Zhang, a rising junior at Bellaire High School, is the founder of The Inkwell Project (T.I.P.), which aims to provide a platform for youth to discover their voices in writing and storytelling. With support from the Bellaire HS PTO, she put on The Inkwell Project Journalism Camp, a free week-long experience for rising 4th-8th graders, for the second time this July. Campers explored storytelling through feature writing, interviews, photography, and multimedia, all culminating in a student-produced newspaper that showcased their work.
They were late again. It was a characteristically humid and rainy day in Houston, and a long Hello Kitty raincoat swallowed her tiny frame. Her mom, soaked and out of breath, guided her to a chair. They had taken an hour and a half Metro from Alief to the Bellaire City Library just to attend the free literacy camp I created – The Inkwell Project.
“We saw your flyer at the park,” her mom explained. “She loves anything artsy, so she begged me to bring her.”
She wasn’t the only one. From Gigi proudly presenting her nature haiku, to Joselyn translating instructions for her Spanish-speaking younger cousins, to a group of elementary boys forming their self-christened “Penguin Squad,” last summer’s T.I.P. camp went beyond writing skills. It created a safe space of belonging, curiosity, and opportunity.
Growing up in a disadvantaged community, my passion for writing came from weekly Writers in the Schools (WITS) classroom sessions. My comfort place was Barnes & Noble. Instead of purchasing the entire Judy Moody series, I simply read four in one sitting. That early love for stories, fact or fiction, naturally evolved into a desire to capture the stories around me.
As an editor on Bellaire High School’s newspaper, Three Penny Press, I’ve written about people ranging from an English teacher who swore off cheese for 18 years to a junior Olympian in martial arts. Journalism puts me in a unique position to illuminate communities that might otherwise be unheard. The invaluable home I found through reporting inspired me to create The Inkwell Project and return this year with a unique focus on journalism.
Through T.I.P., I aim to provide kids a platform for confident expression and see writing as a tool for impact. In the face of misinformation, I want my campers to think critically and tell the truth boldly. They will learn to communicate facts on the frontline, ask probing questions, and explore feature writing, interviews, photography, and more, all culminating in The Inkwell Press newspaper magazine.
Moments like Gigi’s remind me why my own voice matters: to uplift theirs. On the last day of camp, her favorite part wasn’t the crafts or snacks – it was “writing something that felt like me.”
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