By Jamie Hsiung
Daily Bruin Contributor
Resident hall students can relive some grade school memories by
donating their favorite childhood books to Los Angeles-area public
schools.
During the week of Feb. 10, dorm residents will be urged to
participate in a Bruin Up Books program, where they will purchase
books by filling out the Scholastic order forms that are frequently
distributed in elementary schools. The books will be given to local
schools.
“I wanted students on the hill to remember and share the
books that they enjoyed when they were in elementary school,”
said associate education professor Megan Franke, the Faculty in
Residence for Courtside who created the program.
The project itself is funded by the UCLA Education Program
Committee.
With book prices ranging from 95 cents to $5.95, even college
students on a tight budget may be able to cough up some spare
change.
The goal is to get at least 6,000 books donated, said Vanda
Asapahu, the program assistant for Courtside.
“Hopefully if this works out, we’ll continue it
again next year,” she said.
The books will be distributed to teachers who have graduated
from UCLA’s Teacher Education Program and are now teaching in
high-need L.A. urban schools, including schools in the Inglewood,
Lennox and L.A. unified school districts. These classrooms have
virtually no books for students to read.
“Former teacher education students kept coming back,
saying that they needed books to teach,” Franke said.
Felton Elementary School, in the Lennox district, received
200-250 donated books for their library at the beginning of the
year from various companies. But a school counselor said they are
still under-resourced.
“We could always use more books. Always,” said Randy
Garcia, the counselor’s assistant for Felton. “We get
donations often, but we don’t even have one-fourth the number
of books that upscale school districts like Manhattan Beach
does.”
Most of the books will be going to LAUSD. Also, the Lennox
school district has five elementary schools crammed into a single
square mile.
UCLA students who donate a book will have their name and year of
the donation placed on a nameplate along with the names of all the
resident halls inside the book. In turn, the donor will receive a
laminated bookmark created by the children of the selected school
districts.