About - OutWrite

OutWrite, a free, volunteer-based creative writing program, strives to give access to creative writing to students across the nation. Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, OutWrite was meant to provide a creative space for elementary-age children to explore healthy self-expression and the artistic realm during lockdown. With this mission, OutWrite continues this mission in continually encouraging students’ exploration of creative writing while also promoting conducive emotional outlets, self-awareness, growth of imagination, and advancement in skill.

Our Mission

What we believe

We believe that all students should be able to encounter and explore creative writing without limitation of individual constraints. Many of our teachers started with basic creative writing lessons all the way back in elementary school, leading them to their places as “writers” and passions for creative writing now as high schoolers. Sharing this love and exploration of the genre through accessible and fun online classes is one of our primary goals.

While this was especially important for us during the COVID-19 quarantine to give isolated students an emotional outlet and a space for artistic discovery, OutWrite started several other initiatives as the COVID-19 quarantine and the transition back to in-person life slowly ended. These initiatives are dedicated to making the access to creative writing and imaginative thinking possible for students of all demographics, including those who are underprivileged, bilingual, learning English as a second language, and in temporary homes.

Meet the Team

Grace Chung

President + Teacher

Grace Chung is a senior at the Orange County School of the Arts, where she is currently an Editor in Chief of Inkblot, OCSA’s literary magazine. She enjoys all kinds of writing, but likes screenplays in particular. Her writing has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, and in her free time, she likes to make clay sculptures and test out her stationery.

Alice Ahn

Vice President + Teacher

Alice Ahn is a junior at Portola High School, where she is the Arts & Entertainment Editor of the Portola Pilot. She has long been a lover of all things literature, but screenwriting is the closest to her heart. When Alice is not tending to one of her dozens of unfinished movie scripts, she enjoys listening to her elaborately-curated playlists and reading books about the mundane.

Paige Hines

Vice President + Teacher

Paige Hines is a junior at the Orange County School of the Arts in the creative writing conservatory. She enjoys all forms of writing, but in particular, she likes poetry and screenwriting. In her free time, she loves to read, spend time with friends, garden, and travel.

Julie Shih

Teacher

Julie Shih is a junior at Woodbridge High School where she is part of the school’s varsity lacrosse team and choir. She is also the UNICEF club president and is passionate about helping those in need. In her free time, she likes to read and listen or play music. Some of her favorite books are The Outsiders, The Book Thief, The Giver, And Then There Were None, and Charlotte’s Web.

Ashaley Jiang

Teacher

Ashaley Jiang is a senior at University High School. Her intense fondness for writing concentrates mostly on poetry, although she dabbles in short stories as well. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and published in various literary magazines. When she’s not writing or reading, she can be found with paint all over her arms, tending to a fresh canvas.

Ashley Liau

Teacher

Ashley Liau is a junior at Irvine High School, where she is the Managing Editor and Viewpoint Editor of El Vaquero, the school newspaper. She loves to find unique storytelling angles through journalism, recently winning 4th place in the features category of the state-level Journalism Education Association write-off. Outside of writing, Ashley hopes to try matcha in all different parts of the world.

Kolby Mitchell

Teacher

Kolby Mitchell is a highschool Junior at Village Christian. He resides in both Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Kolby’s works consist mainly of creative nonfiction and poetry. He has started a writer’s group called Black Writers of Tomorrow and hopes to give a voice to the voiceless through his writing.

Mckenzie Gil

Teacher

Mckenzie Gil is a sophomore in the Creative Writing Conservatory at Orange County School of the Arts. She loves writing short stories but enjoys reading novels even more. She serves as a staff writer and prose/poetry editor for four youth literary magazines. When she’s not reading or writing, Mckenzie enjoys spending time with friends, playing guitar, and obsessing over new movies and shows—her all-time favorite being Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Vivian Do

Teacher

My name is Vivian Do. I am a junior at Garden Grove High School. I love reading books and writing . In my free time, I volunteer at Discovery Science Cube and Blooming with Hope. I am also a dancer. I love going to the beach, shopping, and hanging out with friends.

Jeanine Cua

Teacher

Jeanine Cua is a junior at Orange County School of the Arts. She enjoys writing informal essays and poetry, and she also finds entertainment in reading short stories. In addition to writing and reading, she enjoys watching movies, writing analysis blurbs in her notes app, and listening to music.

Shining Chen

Teacher

Shining Chen is a junior at Orange County School of the Arts in the Creative Writing Conservatory. She enjoys writing horror and realistic short stories. She also finds joy in engineering and working with children.

Rena Oh

Teacher

Rena Oh is a freshman at the Orange County School of the Arts. She is part of the Creative Writing conservatory and has written many short stories, poems, and songs in her free time. Her favorite books are The Great Gatsby and One of Us is Lying. She is also part of the OCSA MUN team and was in the IUSD Honor, All State, and All Southern Orchestra for cello.

Nollie Chen

Teacher

Nollie Chen is a junior at Portola High School where she is a long-suffering member on the Portola Yearbook staff. When she isn’t stressing over deadlines and rewriting her copies for the umpteenth time, she enjoys taking candids of her friends, playing poker as a pastime, adding to (and occasionally tackling) her TBR list, and poring over the screenplays of the movies and shows she has rewatched time and time again. She is particularly curious about how authors and speakers engage with their audiences, which has sparked in her own newfound interest in teaching.