Credit: Upper Dublin School District.
While attending the prestigious Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) Foundation’s World Congress, Upper Dublin High School student Tylar Gundy was challenged to collaborate with a small group of her Congress peers and to imagine an organization that could serve the public good.
As the group brainstormed, these student-ambassadors found commonalities among them. They had all come from diverse neighborhoods, and all had experienced struggles with reading as children. Upon further research, Gundy found studies suggesting that children who are not reading proficiently by third or fourth grade are statistically less likely to graduate from high school. In this common ground, she and the ambassadors found a problem they could aim to solve. Gundy recalls thinking, “What if, to make it really exciting for kids, what if high schoolers visited the elementary schools to read to them?”
Returning home equipped with her idea, Gundy requested to meet with Upper Dublin School District administrators at the start of the school year to share her vision and an extensive proposal outlining her plan for implementing Eleliteracy. The school leaders connected Gundy with their team of elementary reading specialists for book selection and supported her efforts to secure funding for the children to have their own copies of the books they read together.
Following Gundy’s presentation for the Upper Dublin Education Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide extraordinary learning experiences for Upper Dublin students, the Foundation funded the Eleliteracy project with a $5,000 grant. "Tylar’s passion for fostering a love of reading truly inspired our board, and we’re excited to see the impact of Eleliteracy in our schools,” said Michelle Boas, Executive Director of the Upper Dublin Education Foundation. "We're thrilled to support her efforts to build a strong foundation for literacy among our elementary students." Additional funds to support the program came from the Upper Dublin High School Student Council and the Class of 2023, Raising Cane’s, Peace & Shake, and the Upper Dublin Public Library.
“Our high school team has been excited to champion Tylar’s initiative, which she titled ‘Eleliteracy,’” said Upper Dublin High School Principal Robert Schultz. “We always want our students to feel empowered to lead, to problem-solve, and to spark change when they see an opportunity to make a difference."
Gundy’s initial hope was to recruit 25 high school students interested to visit elementary schools several times throughout the school year and read. She quickly found 44. “Some of my classmates have said they volunteered because they love reading and want to share that, some did it because they had their own troubles reading as kids, and some were just interested to try something new,” said Gundy.
Before making their first elementary school visit in January 2025, the high school students trained with the school’s reading specialists. The specialists helped the high school students learn ways to engage their younger peers while reading aloud and offered them thought-provoking questions to ask.
The first Eleliteracy program was held at Maple Glen Elementary, where Gundy was once a student, in January and was a great success. “Our classroom teachers were very taken by how engaged and enthusiastic their students were as the high school students read to their classes,” said Maple Glen Elementary Principal Nicolas Perez.
“We wanted to honor Tylar’s vision by choosing age-appropriate books that depict diverse characters. Our hope was that students would be able to see themselves reflected in these stories.”
Moving forward, the Eleliteracy high school student volunteers will host a similar program in all of the Upper Dublin School District elementary schools. For Gundy, she hopes this will lay the groundwork for a program that can continue in perpetuity.
“I want this to be a launchpoint for change. I want the children to be able to enjoy reading and be able to use it in the classroom so they won’t fall behind,” said Gundy. “Through this experience, I hope that the kids see their future in us and that we as high schoolers see ourselves in them.”
