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She has a dream...

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Why We Write Inc. started with a dream of Dr. Jacqueline Hamilton, Ed.D. Known as Mizz JJ, she was concerned that so many students disliked or felt meh about writing. In summer 2011, she created a week-long daytime camp experience for friends in Clark County. Word spread, and with each year, camp traditions have developed. In late 2022, Mizz J.J. and a board of three community leaders organized Why We Write Inc., a nonprofit 501 (c)(3). Mizz J.J. serves as executive director.  

After graduation from Miami of Ohio, Mizz J.J. worked as a journalist in South Carolina and won several state press awards. She wrote a non-fiction short story "The Christmas Chair" that was published in the holiday literary anthology Kentucky's 12 Days of Christmas. Her doctorate work included completing a 110-page resource titled Effective Listening Practices for College Students, which she is now updating and revising for book publication.  She teaches English at Eastern Kentucky University during the school year and for the Governor’s Scholars Program during the summer when not at writing camp.

Please feel free to contact her at jacqueline@whywrite.org with any questions; or to schedule her as a guest speaker at your organization; or to arrange for your school to have free writing and listening experiences in classrooms.

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Teachers share the dream...

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Small group classes are an important part of the Inkspire camp experience. Each camp provides on-fire and energetic teachers. Here Mizz J.J. (center) thanks two of the 2022 Winchester camp teachers---Jennifer Taylor and Jenny Strickland. 

Tech and design expert shares the dream...

Thanks to the generosity of Bradley Chem, Inkspire’s website and logo was born in 2022. He also designs the yearly camp announcements and other work for Why We Write Inc. Many website photos were taken by him, including our home page with the sky lanterns--our annual Poetry in Flight night at the Winchester camps. Bradley currently is a doctoral student in chemistry education at the University of Northern Colorado. And how did Mizz JJ meet him?  He was a writing student in her C.S. Lewis literature course at EKU.

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College interns share the dream...

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Inkspire Camp welcomed our first college interns in 2022--who also were former campers for many years.   From left, Meghan Wells, Amy Wright, and Tirzah Schanding display their paintings of Van Gogh’s “Still Life with Apples”—the major art project for Inkspire Camp in 2022. 

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