Ismael Guel: journey to scholastic Gold

In a classroom full of 9th graders, the world shifted for now Senior Ismael Guel. Through the guidance of CVHS teacher Rachel Bohenick, Guel transformed his former hatred for English into a lifelong passion. For the 2024-2025 school year, he is one of 15 students in Harris County to have received a gold key in the Scholastic art and Writing competition for his writing portfolio. 

“My [9th grade] English class really helped me become more confident in my writing skills because I don’t think I had ever written an essay that I liked before,” he said.

Alongside the English curriculum, he joined the CVHS national English honor society where he was introduced to the Scholastic art and writing competition and decided to apply for 2024-25 year. He submitted 6 works which range from poetry, personal essay, and dramatic script. 

“Each work took me around 2 hours to write. However, I had written some in the creative writing class that I’m in this year and the others were completely original,” he stated.

The journey to a scholastic regional win wasn’t easy, and he faced some challenges along the way.

“Writing in the word count was hard because I tend to go on little rambles sometimes, and also having the motivation to write,” he described.

He notes that his writing process is straightforward and doesn’t require extensive editing, with the exception of dramatic script.

“Dramatic script takes longer than everything else. I like writing short story or poetry because it’s a bit quicker and provides more momentum than a dramatic script,” Guel said.

Guel often finds himself immersed in the characters he writes about, often taking inspiration from popular media and even his own experiences.

“ I tend to resonate with my characters…Two of the stories take inspiration from the show Agatha All Along –  a Tarot spread in the show as well as a character who makes an important appearance in the show,” he said.

Apart from writing, Guel often engages in different forms of storytelling which tend to creep into what he writes about.

“I like to playing games on my switch, watch TV – like Agatha all along and Wandavision,” he stated.

However, his biggest inspiration comes from none other than Alice Oseman the author of the hit comic series ‘Heartstopper’.

“She made the heartstopper series, and she was around 16 years old when she published her first book, so I look up to her,” he recalled. 

As he looks ahead into the future, he hopes to continue writing as a personal hobby and even go on to publishing a novel.

“The other weekend, I decided to write a collection of 10 poems and I’m on my 3rd one right now. I would like to do books and stuff, and I’ve been writing one since Freshman year but I haven’t had the time to do so,” Guel recalled.

For those who hope to get started in writing, Guel leaves a reminder:

“This is something I heard online, its ‘write what you know because you can always learn more things to write about’,” he said.