We are excited to have two interns joining our staff this summer! Here they are, introducing themselves in their own words:
My name is Emma Dieterle and I am a rising freshman at UNC Chapel Hill. Growing up, I was fortunate enough to foster an early love for reading thanks to the eagerness of my mother. From the moment I entered kindergarten my mom would ensure that I always had a book on hand. She would spend hours a night reading aloud Harry Potter, until I was impatient enough to read it myself in second grade. Books were a vital part of my childhood because of the time my mom would dedicate to reading to me every night, to buying me books, and encouraging me to use my imagination. Not all the kids I went to school with were as fortunate, which is why I am excited to be joining the Book Harvest team; because Book Harvest is dedicated to making it so having access to good books doesn’t have to be a privilege, but a right.
In the fall I will be attending UNC Chapel Hill as a global studies major. I have no clue where I will go in my professional life – who does at my age — but I can see myself potentially going into education or marketing. I have a million favorite books, one for each mood and each period in my life. Right now, I would have to say that I love The Wrath and the Dawn by Reneé Adieh because of her elegant writing style and colorful characters.
A quote that I admire is one by Neil Gaiman that reads, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” I chose this quote because it highlights the thing that I believe is most important about books; the strength you get from them. Not only is reading an escape from the world, but it builds character and strength within the reader. In books, we learn how to face challenges and believe in ourselves, because often times the characters we are so attached to represent those things. This is why I believe that every child should have a chance to experience a good book, because we all deserve to be brave.
My name is America Lopez Montoya. I go to Durham School of the Arts and I am a rising Junior. I found out about Book Harvest through Books on Break, one of their programs. I was in fourth grade, and my teacher told the classroom that we were going to be given books for free so we can read them over the summer. We headed up to the media center wondering what books there will be, and I saw tables filled with books. We were told to pick out five books. We all went in separate directions trying to pick up the best books to read. We later went back to the classroom and we showed each other what we had gotten. We were all very excited about the books we had chosen. My favorite book is called All-American Girl and the Gallagher Girl series all by Ally Carter. I love the suspense and the romance in the books. I am excited to work with Book Harvest because I want other children to feel the same way I felt when I got to chose books that I wanted to read. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” – George R.R. Martin
We are especially excited that America is working with us this summer through our partnership with Student U, where she is also a student. We hope you’ll stop by to meet Emma and America sometime soon!