Rutgers–Camden senior looks to connect with Camden residents through a shared love of reading
As a Rutgers University–Camden Bonner Civic Scholar, Feroza Aziz completes 300 hours of community service per year. When she was first admitted to the program, she volunteered for a local Camden organization that works to improve public safety, and then with the Rutgers Immigrant Community Assistance Project (RICAP), a Rutgers Law clinic. However, a visit to an event hosted by The Free Books Project in the spring of 2024 changed everything.
"I had such a sense of fulfillment," said Aziz, a senior in the Honors College. “I hope to pursue a career in law, so my time with RICAP was beneficial to me in so many ways, but I decided to volunteer with The Free Books Project because it just made me happy to be there.”
The Free Books Project began in October 2018 when its founder, Tom Martin, set up a folding table on a sidewalk in Camden and displayed books his friends had donated. Since then, the organization has grown to include free-standing "Book Arks" placed throughout the city and maintained by volunteers, as well as regular pop-up library events in the community.
Driven by the mission to improve literacy rates throughout Camden, The Free Books Project has distributed over 250,000 books since its inception. The ability to connect directly with the community while addressing an unmet need was important to Aziz.
"The Free Books Project is directly helping people from underserved communities that historically have low literacy rates,” said Aziz. “Being able to have books at no cost is so helpful, especially for people struggling to make ends meet."
Aziz is leading a semester-long book drive supporting The Free Books Project. Framed as a "Comic Relief" book drive, it asks the campus community to donate graphic novels, a genre that patrons often request but the project does not usually have on hand.
With donation bins placed in high-traffic locations like the Campus Center and the Paul Robeson Library, Aziz is encouraging fellow Honors College students to get involved. Students with an activity requirement in their courses or programs can receive credit for donating.
Simanti Lahiri, program coordinator for student civic engagement at Rutgers–Camden and Aziz’s faculty advisor for the book drive, is enthusiastic about the project’s impact on campus and in the community.
“The capstone project for the Certificate in Civic Engagement and Social Change—the requirement Feroza is fulfilling with this project—is meant to impact and benefit the Camden community and our students," said Lahiri. “Feroza's graphic-novel drive does both, because she raised the profile of The Free Books Project among Rutgers–Camden students and will provide books to engage the young people of Camden, hopefully inspiring lifelong readers.”
Aziz anticipates reaching her goal of 50 to 100 books by the end of the semester and is already thinking about how to continue the effort after she graduates in May.
“I hope to find a fellow Bonner Civic Scholar to continue the effort beyond this semester,” said Aziz. “The Free Books Project provides some of Camden’s most vulnerable citizens with access to books they might not otherwise have, but it also provides endless opportunities to connect with people and change lives.”
