A student group that launched earlier this semester is spreading positivity one sticky note at a time.
Write for Heart GW, which is composed primarily of first-year students, aims to spread mental wellness on campus through sharing students’ writing, according to their Instagram page. Organizers said they started the group, which currently has 10 members, with goals to create an inclusive space for writers, promote positive mental health by allowing students to share positive messages for other students and share students’ creative skills on a developing booklet.
Co-president Rachel Zuckerman, a first-year majoring in cognitive neuroscience and minoring in creative writing, said the group is planning to make booklets featuring poetry, short stories, essays, photography and art submitted by students. She said a Google Form that the group promotes through Instagram is open for students to submit their pieces to be published in digital booklets that they hope to print and distribute around campus, local businesses and the pediatric floor of the GW Hospital.
The Google Form asks if contributors want the executive board to provide feedback or editing for work.
“I’m just very excited to see where Write for Heart is at later in the future, and I’m excited to see it grow in this community,” Zuckerman said.
Co-president Vy Vuong, a first-year majoring in neuroscience and English, said she met Zuckerman in her abnormal psychology class this semester. She said as neuroscience majors, the pair had trouble finding a student organization that would accept creative writing submissions from non-English majors.
Student organization Capitol Letters allows students to submit creative works for publication, according to their Engage.
“That’s why we’re like ‘What if we did it?” Vuong said.
Vuong said she and Zuckerman were inspired to work on a website, which will serve as a digital platform for people to share their writing and artwork, for the group after seeing a pamphlet with student-written poetry on a professor’s door in Phillips Hall in October.
“We were really interested in seeing if there were any platforms to share your writing, even if you’re not just like an English or a traditional major,” Vuong said.
She said after they discussed their shared interest in creative writing and potential goals of creating a booklet, she and Zuckerman went to the Org Help office in the University Student Center to learn the process of creating a student organization, and their application to officially establish is pending approval.
Vuong said the group hopes to grow by hosting more general body meetings and increasing their social media following. They have hosted two meetings this semester.
Vuong said the group’s first project, which started Nov. 13, involved putting up about 200 to 300 sticky notes with positive messages like “we appreciate you” and “proceed without certainty” and the group’s Instagram handle at the bottom around the Mount Vernon Campus and Madison and Thurston halls. She said she was on “hope core” TikTok where she saw an abundance of inspirational quotes and wanted to spread similar messages to other community members.
“I was like, ‘Okay, what is a way that’s really easy for us to produce something, and then also to have it be really easy for people to either take or just look at?’” Vuong said.
Chris Briggs, a first-year majoring in political science, said he decided to join Write for Heart after he spotted the sticky notes around campus and saw Vuong putting them up. In his role as a group officer, he said he will spearhead the layout and design of the booklets, putting together art, photography and writing.
Briggs said he joined the group to help people produce creative, artistic work in a place they can be proud of.
“I see it more of a way to use my own skills to help other people forward their own messages and get their own work out there,” Briggs said.
