English Language Fellow Leanna Stickel’s office at Korkyt Ata State University in Kazakhstan recently became home to nearly 1000 English language books and a small library.
The cache of books, along with about a hundred magazines, was discovered in a university storage room during building repairs. As the on-site representative for English, Leanna couldn’t bear to see the books return to storage unused. Instead, she had the stacks relocated to her office where she and a small team of students developed a simple, yet effective labelling system for the makeshift library.
With students coming to her in-office library every day to look for books, she has been able to build a relationship with them as she helps make a selection based on their interests and skill level. Leanna has even found that her colleagues are now requiring their students to read books for class, a happy addition to their curriculum.