Student Project Profile: Book Drive
Tejas Pradeep, Mira Loma High School

Post
Written by Tomas Woolston, Student intern

One example of a recent student-organized project Stanford Youth Solutions is a very successful book drive organized by Tejas Pradeep, sophomore at Mira Loma High School. Tejas proposed the idea of a book drive to Stanford Youth Solutions in March 2011 with the original goal of collecting around two-hundred books for the children and youth in their programs. Tejas shattered his goal pulling in nearly 2,000 books from a variety of community supporters.

Tejas targeted donations from three sources: door to door collections in his own neighborhood, donation boxes at local elementary and middle schools, and a holiday book drive partnership with Barnes and Noble in Citrus Heights. Tejas undertook this project to earn his Eagle Scout badge in his Boy Scout troop. If Tejas ever needed help he looked to those around him and found support through fellow scouts, school clubs willing to lend a hand, and those supervising him such as troop leaders and parents.

A great deal of his success can be credited to the careful planning process he underwent before taking on this project. Having a timeline and proposal helped lay everything out in a step by step process, ensuring he met important deadlines and didn’t overlook any details. Due to his systematic approach, he had few surprises except the abundance of books he took in and the minimal storage he had available at home. Stanford Youth Solutions is grateful for his service and has already put his donations to good use, gifting as many books as they could to those families in need during the holidays, and preparing a lending library for children and youth to take a book home with them every time they visit the office.