MUKILTEO — It’s more than a building full of books.
High school students around Snohomish County who are volunteering with Sno-Isle Libraries’ first Teen Ambassadors program are learning to shake off stereotypes about their local libraries.
Sno-Isle launched the program this summer. Teens applied and were interviewed for the positions, which rack up community service hours and let them get involved with their library. There are a dozen teen ambassadors who made a year-long commitment. They help plan events at the library, do outreach and marketing to their peers on social media, and have monthly assignments that include blog posts and book reviews.
Teen services coordinator Dawn Rutherford started the program. It’s a pilot project, she said, but she hopes to continue it.
“We’re kind of experimenting with it, seeing what works and what doesn’t work,” she said. “We’re very interested in engaging teens in innovative ways that are interesting to them and help them feel like they’re part of the library.”
The ambassadors work with librarians to build skills meant to benefit them in whatever careers they pursue. That includes communicating professionally, meeting deadlines and managing their time wisely.
Rutherford was involved in a library teen advisory group in high school, and it was a defining experience, she said. “I want to pay that forward.”
Jonathan Kwong, 14, is a freshman at Mountlake Terrace High School and one of the ambassadors. His favorite project so far has been helping coordinate a mad science themed event, which is scheduled for Saturday at the Lynnwood Library.
He’s learned a lot about the library, he said. He found out how to get online homework assistance and was encouraged by librarians to rely on them for help with research. He hopes to one day have a career in forensic science.
Kwong has been going to the library since he was little. Volunteering there has given him something familiar to hold onto while adjusting to high school, he said. He’d like to be an ambassador next year, too.
Angie Wang, 16, and Caroline Kulits, 15, also said they’d like to continue as teen ambassadors. Wang is a sophomore at Kamiak High School and Kulits goes to King’s High School in Shoreline. Laura Campbell, 17 and a senior at Kamiak, wishes she could be an ambassador again, but doesn’t think it’ll work out after she graduates high school and turns her focus to college full time. She’s currently a Running Start student.
Campbell and Wang helped coordinate the ComicCon event at the Snohomish Library in November. It was a hit. The ambassadors said they didn’t realize how many events there are at libraries until they started volunteering.
They also have enjoyed the blog posts they’ve been assigned. Wang’s favorite was a prompt about diversity, and Kulits is excited for poetry this month.
“I’ve always been a fan of libraries,” Kulits said. “In elementary school, we had a teeny, tiny library, and I was always the first one in and the last one out.”
The biggest challenge of being an ambassador is time management, the teens said. They’re balancing homework, orchestra and theater, debate and mock trial teams, and afterschool jobs or babysitting.
Wang, Campbell and Kulits think the workplace skills they’ve learned will come in handy. They hope the year-long volunteer program will boost their resumes for college admittance and jobs, too.
But logistics and future planning aside, they said the program has been fun.
“You have to choose to get involved,” Kulits said. “There are a lot of ways you could stand back and not participate, but it’s better to get involved.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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