Love of reading punctuates high school senior project

Kiara Harrison is closing the chapter on her high school life by promoting literacy in the community.

For her senior project, Harrison helped organize and run the book fair at Evergreen Elementary School gym from Oct. 25 to 27, a natural fit for the student who began reading even before starting kindergarten.

At the beginning of the school year when Harrison was immersed in volleyball practice and trying to figure out what her senior project was going to be, her mother, Kaelene Harrison, was planning the book fair but struggling to find help.

"The (Parent Teacher Community Club) president, who's actually my mom, was trying to find people to help and she wasn't getting a ton of people to run it," Harrison said. "She mentioned it to me, and I was like, 'That would be a really great senior project.'"

Harrison was tasked with designing advertising materials for the book fair, creating spreadsheets to organize volunteers, setting up and taking down the displays and cleaning up after the three-day event. On Oct. 25, a day when only the elementary students attended the fair, she helped kids find books that would appeal to them and spent time reading to classes as they came through.

The following two days of the fair, she worked the cash register to check out community members. "It was super busy, especially the first two days," Harrison said. "The lines were never-ending at the cash registers. I think everyone just loves the opportunity to get new literature and have a fun event like that where they can go support the school and their kids in reading."

Kaelene Harrison said there were easily more than 500 titles available for the community to choose from and around 200 people showed up for the event. It was the first time it was held since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was the first time the Parent Teacher Community Club organized the event, which was previously run by teaching staff. The book fair proved to be so popular that they will hold it again in May.

Reading has always been a part of Harrison's life. "Kiara loves to read," her mom said. "If she could read all day, she probably would. She started reading probably before kindergarten. She went from there and excelled at reading. She started reading chapter books and didn't stop."

The high school senior and captain of the girls varsity basketball team said she didn't play sports at all as a child, choosing to lose herself in the Harry Potter books that she would read with her father and siblings. Before that, she couldn't resist a good mystery and enjoyed reading the Nancy Drew series of books.

Harrison also likes historical fiction, where the events and figures are accurate, but the stories revolve around fictional characters. It inspires her to learn more about events such as World War II, one of her favorite topics.

It was important for her to share that love of reading when choosing the book fair for her project.

"I think it's really important in the formation of personalities," she said. "I actually researched a bit about the effects of reading on your health for an essay I had to do. It was amazing to see some of the studies they've done where it showed how reading can affect the compassion you have for others, and it increases your memory. It has a lot of health benefits."

Harrison's parents have tried to instill reading in their children at an early age. The love of reading and learning stuck with Harrison.

She said there isn't anything she won't miss about school after graduating. She plans on being a pre-med student, though she hasn't determined which university she wants to attend yet. Future plans include becoming a pediatric doctor.

"I just love being around people and helping people, and it's always so interesting to me, the human body, and how complicated it is," she said. "I've always felt I would enjoy working in the medical field and that I would love my job."