Kensington Health Sciences Academy’s library used to consist of a single cart that students would push through the school’s hallways, trying to find takers for the tiny book collection they managed to piece together.
Now, it’s a whole room — brightly painted, with shelves and shelves of books, tables, comfy chairs, and computers — “a real library,” junior Christian Toro said last week, shaking his head in wonder.
Even when it was one rolling cart, KHSA’s “DreamEscape Library” was a marvel: conceived, built, and run by students. They spent their entire school careers with no real school libraries and then made one happen on their own.
» READ MORE: Here’s how some Philly high school students built a library from scratch. ‘Kids just kept coming, renewing books.’
But, with support from the community that poured in afterThe Inquirer first reported on the students’ efforts, the library has leveled up. Last week, students and staff marked the grand opening of the expanded library — for the first time, occupying a room of its own, with a budget to buy books.
“It feels amazing,” said Toro. “Now, we have a whole space to ourselves.”
Building buzz
The Philadelphia School District has just three full-time certified school librarians for 216 schools — a ratio experts say may be the worst in the country among big-city districts.
Two school years ago, KHSA students decided building a library was the answer to the student government advisers’ question: name one project that would positively impact our community?
A group of kids got a $1,000 seed grant and started with the rolling cart, plus as many free, high-interest books as they could find. At first, they had to sell their classmates on reading and on checking out books.
They called it the DreamEscape Library. They created a social media account and built buzz book by book, student by student.
Eventually, the KHSA students won $20,000 via the Philly Service Award’s Young Entrepreneurs prize. They shifted from the cart to splitting room 107B with the school’s special-education office, opening a few days a week after school, doing all the work themselves — from cataloging the books to helping classmates find the right series, from checking them out to promoting the library in school and via social media.
After The Inquirer detailed the students’ work, DreamEscape suddenly had a fan base outside the school — people who wanted to buy books or send words of encouragement.
A partnership 40 years in the making
In a way, the members of Christos Mar Thoma Church in Northeast Philadelphia had been looking for KHSA and DreamEscape for years.
Bobby Mathew, a member of the church, had been searching for a local school cause for the church to latch onto for a long time.
Mathew came to Philadelphia from India as a teenager. He landed in Marsha Pincus’ English class at Gratz High in 1985, and the two forged a strong bond.
Mathew was quickly singled out as a promising student, and given a $66 a month scholarship by a local organization — money that made a real difference in the young man’s life.
“The school wanted to be kind, and that enabled me, and I wanted to enable others someday,” said Mathew, who went on to major in engineering at Drexel and work for tech companies like Intel and Broadcom.
Forty years later, he found the right others. After The Inquirer story ran, Pincus connected him to KHSA. Church members visited the library, and KHSA principal Nimet Eren and Ethan Feuer, one of the DreamEscape sponsoring teachers, traveled to the church.
Soon after, a partnership was forged. The church donated $5,000 to DreamEscape, and, at the grand opening, promised more assistance going forward.
The display made Eren teary.
“It has been an absolute dream seeing you guys work so hard over the last few years,” Eren said at the grand opening. “Every principal wants to create a school where the students are the leaders, and you really have provided leadership to the rest of the school.”
Church members were similarly moved.
“This is a dream come true for us, as it is for you,” one told the students.
After the speeches, Christos Mar Thoma members celebrated with the students and teachers, treating them to samosas, chicken biryani, and other dishes.
Feuer, along with teacher Elena Marcovici, has been with the project since its inception. Feuer said the library has been transformative for the school. Kids are leaning into a culture of reading for pleasure.
“Every single ninth grader has a book checked out now,” Feuer said. They ask for new books, and Feuer has the budget to order them.
For now, DreamEscape is open three days a week, 2:34-3:30 p.m., when students can staff it. But the team has big plans.
“The big dream,” Feuer said, “would be to have it open during every lunch period.”