Last week Ohio State students began reading books to students in the classrooms of Columbus Public Schools.
The OSU student readers are part of OSU’s Office of Student Life’s “Stories for Students from Students” project that began in January as an initiative to provide K–5 students with new books.
The goal of the project is to give a book to each of the 25,000 students in the city’s public elementary schools. At $5 a book, the group at OSU needed to raise $125,000 to meet that goal.
Zach Usmani, the student leader for the project, said the project has raised $4,600 from the donation centers around campus, and more than $6,000 from numerous student organizations. The student groups also send members to read to the children.
As the final day for donations, April 9, looms closer, Usmani says he hopes more people are looking for ways to give back. He encourages anyone to stop by one of the 20 donation centers around campus and give $5. There are donation centers at the RPAC, the Jesse Owens Recreation centers and the Ohio Union at the Ohio Stadium, to name a few.
“If you want, you can write the kids a note,” said Usmani, a fourth-year in sociology. “It’s something more personal that could motivate them even more.”
The children will begin receiving their books before summer break.
However, OSU students have begun reading the books to students in K–3 grade levels, and read the first chapter to “whet the appetites” of fourth, fifth and some sixth graders, Usmani said.
The books students are expected to receive are: Kindergarten, “Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears,” by Verna Aardema; first grade, “Tikki Tikki Tembo,” by Arlene Mosel; second grade, “Something Beautiful,” by Sharon Dennis Wyeth; third grade, “Miss Rumphius,” by Barbara Cooney; fourth grade, “James and the Giant Peach,” by Roald Dahl; fifth and some six grade, “When You Reach Me,” by Rebecca Stead.
The books were selected when Student Life asked students and faculty to e-mail which books they liked growing up. Student Life received more than 1,000 suggestions in three days. Members of Student Life narrowed the suggestions to ones that cultivate beneficial values, Usmani said.
The project began when Susan Smith, a senior pastor of Advent United Church of Christ in Columbus suggested to Javaune Adams-Gaston, vice president of Student Life, that OSU should raise money to donate books to New Orleans. Adams-Gaston liked the idea, but asked Smith if the project could be localized to schools in Columbus, said D’Andra Mull, Student Life’s interim chief of staff.
The first order of business for Adams-Gaston was to find a capable leader for the program.
Usmani was working in Adams-Gaston’s office when he was asked if he wanted to lead the project, he said. He knew it was for a great cause because he believes education is the one way to give children a future, he said.
Mull said of Usmani, “You can look into his eyes and see the passion. He’s fired up.”
Usmani joked that he does “almost everything” for the project, but rescinded, adding that Mull handles buying materials, processing checks and meeting with Columbus School officials.
When his term as project leader ends in April, he will concentrate on graduating on June 13, then traveling to Tulsa, Okla. on June 14 to be a part of the Teach for America program. He will go into a five-week-long intensive training program that “essentially teaches you
how to teach,” he said.
From there, he will teach secondary general sciences in the Tulsa area.
Further into his future, Usmani hopes to become a president of a
university, or a chancellor of education.
“My main goals would be to make higher education affordable,” he said.
For now, Usmani enjoys being involved with Undergraduate Student Government, Undergraduate Admissions, the Ohio Board of Regents and “hanging out with friends,” he said.
It will be hard replacing Zach, Mull said. She hopes the next head of the Stories for Students from Students project “walks the path that Zach has walked, and shares his values.”
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