Leadership heads to local schools to promote reading

Senior Puja Maheshwari couldn’t help but laugh as the little girl she was reading with screamed in excitement when she saw the various pictures in the children’s book.

In classes all around Argonaut Elementary School, students from the Leadership class sat alongside elementary school children on March 21 as they read children’s books to the young students while they shared smiles and laughs.

“I loved the kids’ reactions when we read the books to them,” said Maheshwari, who worked with the kindergarteners. “When we asked them how they liked the book, they would scream about all the different pictures they liked, and it was really cute.”

Toga Reads, a new event this year, was planned by the Leadership Class and Outreach Commission to develop connections between the three Saratoga elementary schools and the high school. The class originally tried to work with Redwood Middle School to encourage high school and middle school relationships; however, after running into timing issues, the class turned its focus to the elementary schools.  

“Reaching out to local elementary schools exposes our Leaderships students in mentorship, which is a key component of leadership,” activities director Matt Torrens said. “The vision of ASB is to find new ways to serve in our community, so this idea works perfectly with that.”

Helen Jarrett, an SHS parent and a substitute teacher, first brought up the idea of high schoolers reading alongside elementary school children to Torrens in late February. After working out logistics with the Leadership students, Torrens planned to have the students walk to each of the three neighboring elementary schools, Argonaut, Saratoga and Foothill during lunch and their fifth-period Leadership class.   

On the day of the event, the Leadership students split into three groups and then walked to each of the elementary schools. Using books from the elementary school’s libraries, the students helped to foster an environment that encouraged learning in a fun way.

Because the Leadership event was such a success, Leadership students are thinking of hosting the same event for seniors to read to younger students prior to graduation this spring.

“The Leadership and elementary school students really seemed to enjoy the event,” Maheshwari said. “We got so much positive feedback and definitely want to try this out with the entire senior class.