A common problem among high school students is gathering enough volunteering hours. Especially in junior year, students scramble to get their community service hours done for upcoming college applications. Aurora Public Library’s Teenage Advisory Board, a committee for building up your community service hours, has been gaining more members in recent months with new members on the way.
The Teen Advisory Board spans all branches of the Aurora Public Library: Eola Road, Santori, and the West Branch. It has been active for several years now and has provided countless students with the experience and volunteering opportunities they need to contribute to the community as well as their college applications.
The Team Leader of the Teen Advisory Board, senior Anisha Singla, finds the organization to be one of the more enjoyable volunteer opportunities.
“It’s definitely fun,” Singla said “It’s fun planning activities and then you can see them at the library happening and you’re {think] ‘Yeah, I helped with that’. It allows you to be more involved with the whole process because you can plan a volunteer event and then you can also go volunteer there like we did with the escape rooms.”
The committee prides itself on bringing in the thoughts and ideas of the public, mostly teenagers and kids, into consideration when it comes to organizing events and other activities for the library.
Teen Services Librarian, Flannery Crump, provides more information about the Aurora Public Library’s student volunteer committee and their goals.
“I think it’s really important for teens and students to have a voice in the library and get to make decisions about what the library does,” Crump said. “Because a lot of times it’s all just adults making those decisions and I want teens to be able to feel like they have an influence and a voice at the library.”
The Teen Advisory Board has made it a priority to have low-commitment and easy-to-attend meetings. The last one was held on March 4, 2024. All board meetings are available to members over Zoom as well if going in person is ever not possible. “[The meetings] are once a month on the first Monday of each month,” Crump says. “There is an application on our website and anybody can just fill it out and then we send their application to the rest of the TAB members for their approval.”
