This year marks the 10th anniversary of Albion’s Big Read program, which, through student leaders, continues its mission of transforming how 8th to 10th graders engage with reading.
College volunteers (CVs), are a key factor in making the Big Read enjoyable for Albion’s younger students. For Big Read Founder and English Professor Jess Roberts, “They are the people who create the context of joy in which the kids experience the book and themselves and each other.”
This year’s CVs include Albion senior Malena Solis, Homer sophomore Autumn Robinson, Reading senior Yasmeen Azookari, Albion senior Kyndall Lewis, Albion senior Breanna Ridley and St. Louis senior Kelvin Crone-Willis. Robinson said they work closely with the students to make the assigned reading more enjoyable and to foster students’ connections with it.
“It’s a very fun environment,” Robinson said. “No one knows until you’re in there, you don’t just read the book with the students, it’s an environment where they get to experience joy.”
Roberts added that the volunteers have helped to offer fresh perspectives from both inside and outside Albion.
“Every single year for 10 years, we have just had such fantastic, cool volunteers,” Roberts said. “We get this mix of people who are from Albion and not from Albion all working together.”
Community Impact, Albion’s History
The Big Read has impacted the Albion community over the past 10 years. A key aspect of this impact for the Big Read, according to Lewis, is eradicating injustice in and outside the classroom.
Lewis, who is also an Albion Resident, said that when it comes to the Big Read’s community impact, “the whole point in the program is to change the world by changing young people’s relationships to reading, and eradicate injustice around the world.”
Following the annexation of Albion public schools, students were required to attend schools in Marshall and other surrounding areas. Albion has a large Black population, and due to the Black students moving to school systems where they are a minority, many confront racial issues at a young age.
Lewis has seen and dealt with these problems firsthand. She recognized that the Big Read’s mission is a huge ask for the Albion students, “but they have it in them, and they step up to the plate.”
“It’s not something that necessarily is created in them by the Big Read, but it brings it out of them,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she has seen the Big Read’s impact firsthand by attending community meetings centered around the program. During these meetings, eighth graders to 10th graders lead discussions about the book, inviting participants of all ages to join in.
“The leaders lead a discussion on the book with anybody that comes to the meeting,” Lewis said. “So it can be somebody’s grandma, it can be a stranger that nobody knows in the room, but they come and they discuss the book.”
The Family that Reads Together, Stays Together
While the Big Read has helped the community, it also helps the CVs who help out every year.
“We have gotten to know them and trust them, and they have gotten to know me and trust me and now we’re like a big family,” Ridley said. “They teach me to have patience.”
Assistant Director of the Big Read Kali Johnson, alumna ‘24, also spoke on the connections the Big Read has brought to her life.
“I joined the Big Read not knowing fully what it was and it transformed into this amazing experience of kids learning how to enjoy reading but it’s also like we’re building this family,” Johnson said.
However, the job does come with some hardships. One CV, Reading senior Yasmeen Azookari, said she has faced challenges like this, building relationships with the children and learning to eventually let go.
“You’re only there for a few hours and you’ll see something that reminds you of a certain kid there, or you know about a certain kid’s home life and you wonder how they’re doing,” Azookari said. “It’s a good thing to think about and worry about the kids, but it’s also sometimes hard.”
Founding the Big Read
Roberts said she was inspired to start the Big Read from her previous years of work with students at Harrington Elementary.
“I fell in love with these kids in Albion,” Roberts said. “I thought, ‘how can I create an opportunity to continue to work with kids in Albion, but also how can I create opportunities that will allow other people to work with kids in Albion?’”
In 2015, Roberts launched the Big Read with the help of her husband and self-proclaimed “wing-man,” English Professor Nels Christensen. Christensen said he initially believed Roberts was “crazy” for starting the program, adding, “I said that’s a horrible idea, and it will never work.”
However, after seeing its impact in the first year, he said, “the love of the Big Read converted me.”
Christensen added that he started working with the Big Read gradually until he was “deep” into the program within a year.
According to the program’s website, students experience reading as both “Joyful and relevant. Then, they create that experience for our community!”
This Year’s Big Read Book: “One Crazy Summer”
This year’s book is “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia.
According to the Zinn Education Project, “Williams-Garcia’s novel of three young sisters’ life-changing summer, is set in 1968 Oakland, California. As the summer progresses, the sisters come to know their estranged mother, Cecile; become involved in street-level politics; and begin to think of themselves as ‘Black’ instead of ‘colored.’”
Roberts and Big Read leaders chose this book to connect with the students of Albion and show how the main characters, who are around the same age as the students, deal with racial issues.
“These three kids spend all summer at the Black Panther Community Center, and I think that resonates a lot with the Albion community,” Crone-Willis said.
What’s Next For the Big Read?
In the future, Johnson said she would love to see the program continue and expand.
“I hope there’s at least ten more years in Big Read,” Johnson said. “Not a lot of teachers at Marshall (Public Schools) know about the Big Read so it’s a positive change I’d like to see change.”
October is “Big Read Month,” and Big Read students lead book discussions and community events hosted by the Albion Branch NAACP and Ludington Center. The month will close with a visit from the author of “One Crazy Summer,” Williams-Garcia, on Oct. 28 at the Bohm Theatre.
Killian Altayeb also contributed reporting to this story.
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