the story
books in a box has a very unique story for a nonprofit, and it's one we hold at the center of everything we do. in order to start the story, i have to introduce myself. my name is ella rosenberg, i'm a high school student at durham school of the arts, and i have a passion for spreading literacy. when i was in seventh grade, i worked with the transition to kindergarten initiative. it was their that i first got interested in early childhood education. in eighth grade, i dedicated a three month research project to researching the factors that go into how quickly a child learns to read. i did intensive research and field work, working with a local kindergarten class, and even teaching my own lessons. it was through this project that i learned the main factor was quite simply, resources. i started to think of how i could work towards getting children the resources they needed, and the idea for books in a box was born. with the help of quite a few people (to whom i owe a great deal of gratitude), books in a box lifted off with a pilot program. through a foster parent association, i gathered five families, and we did a trial run of the program. many of them enjoyed the program, so i began looking for ways to run it for longer. book harvest generously offered to provide the books we needed, and the project launched! i'm beyond ecstatic! thank you so much to all the wonderful people who have encouraged me and our growing organization!
