HIGH POINT, N.C., Sept. 14, 2016 – High Point University’s Class of 2020 began donating more than 1,000 books to local schools on Sept. 12.
Through HPU’s Common Experience program, which includes a common read, new students were invited to share their favorite book with a local child by donating a copy when they arrived to campus for the start of the fall semester. The books began to be distributed Monday at T. Wingate Andrews High School, Kirkman Park Elementary, Welborn Academy of Science and Technology and Montlieu Academy of Technology.
The Common Experience is a yearlong collaborative project that engages new students across disciplines as they make the transition to college. Every year the experience focuses on a central theme and allows students to begin giving back to the community immediately.
Dr. Jenn Brandt, director of the Common Experience, and her first-year seminar students dedicated time to make the deliveries.
“We are really excited to get incoming students to immediately engage in the community,” said Brandt. “And sharing books and a love of reading is a great way of doing that.”
Through cheers of excitement, HPU first-years unloaded boxes of books into the hands of elementary school students, receiving plenty of thanks and even a few hugs.
Kim Scott, an HPU alumna and the principal of Montlieu Academy, looked on as her students flipped through stacks of books.
“I’m really excited for our scholars to get to experience this,” she said. “It means so much because we often talk to our students about being college bound, so for them to see HPU students here means the world. It’s building their interest in reading and scholastics and speaks a lot to our partnership with HPU.”
Kayla Quick, once a Montlieu Academy student and now an HPU first-year, said that returning to her former school made the donation especially exciting.
“It’s great to come back here and see all of the things I remember and to also see the things I’ve forgotten,” said Quick. “And it’s great to be able to give back.”
Scott Wojciechowski, director of first-year residential education, says he is hopeful that the book donation will become a tradition for HPU first-years.
“It’s all about what a book represents: learning and education,” said Wojciechowski. “To share that with the community really shows how we are High Point’s University.”