{"id":7731,"date":"2026-01-23T12:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.urbanscience.com\/resources\/\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:09:11","slug":"how-one-urban-scientist-helped-spark-a-love-of-reading-in-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanscience.com\/jp\/resources\/how-one-urban-scientist-helped-spark-a-love-of-reading-in-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"How One Urban Scientist Helped Spark a Love of Reading in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Community service isn\u2019t always glamorous. In fact, many times it requires sacrifice and sweat equity. Sometimes it looks like cardboard dust, ink-smudged thumbs and a row of bankers\u2019 boxes filling up as a team sorts books by age level and theme. That was the scene in our company\u2019s Nashville office when Business Consultant Mohera Narimetla rallied colleagues to support Book\u2019em<\/a>, a local nonprofit dedicated to distributing free books to children from low-income households.<\/p>\n

Mohera\u2019s volunteer experience with Book\u2019em was in support of our annual Community Giving Initiative, a program through which participating Urban Scientists nominate a nonprofit they\u2019re passionate about supporting and complete a four-hour (minimum) paid volunteerism requirement. Once they volunteer with the organization and create a recap about their experience, our company awards a $500 corporate donation to the nominated nonprofit.<\/p>\n

When the Community Giving program nomination period opened, Mohera didn\u2019t hesitate to get involved. Her decision to support Book\u2019em was personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became a voracious reader as an adult during the pandemic,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was a really isolating time, and reading became a powerful form of escapism for me. I wanted to help kids experience the same comfort and enjoyment I\u2019ve found in reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n
\n

A Mission Beyond the Page<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

Her renewed love of reading in effect, Mohera researched local nonprofits that supported literacy for children, and in 2023, she came across Book\u2019em. That year, she organized a holiday book drive that collected hundreds of books and rallied her coworkers to process them at the nonprofit\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

Book\u2019em\u2019s mission goes beyond simply giving children books. The organization focuses on representation, ensuring the stories they share reflect the diversity of the children who receive them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking through Book\u2019em\u2019s headquarters, you see books that feature every kind of family, every kind of child,\u201d Mohera said. \u201cStories about Black girls becoming engineers, bilingual books, books about kids with two moms or two dads. It\u2019s a celebration of identity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

That detail is more than a gesture. Research on literacy consistently shows representation increases engagement. When a child recognizes their own name, neighborhood or family structure in print, they read longer, retain more and see reading as something meant for them.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n
\n

Reading Forward<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

Our company\u2019s Community Giving Initiative donated $11,500 to employee-nominated nonprofits in 2025. And through this important program, we also offer paid volunteer time off, encouraging teams to step out of their daily responsibilities and into their communities to lend a hand to our neighbors who need us most.<\/p>\n

For Narimetla, her hope is programs like this keep expanding, turning single events\u2014like the 2023 book drive that first introduced her to Book\u2019em\u2014into ongoing partnerships that build community muscle over time.<\/p>\n

“Mohera diligently volunteered her time to process book donations for our Books for Nashville’s Kids (BFNK) program,\u201d said Celina Cunningham, book programs coordinator for Book\u2019em. \u201cVolunteers like her are essential to helping us more efficiently get high-quality books into kids’ hands, and we greatly appreciate her contribution to Book’em’s mission to ignite a love of reading in all of Nashville’s children.”<\/p>\n

The Nashville team\u2019s book drive may have wrapped up, but Mohera hopes its spirit of service inspires more Urban Scientists to find ways to support causes close to home. For her, the impact of the Community Giving Initiative isn\u2019t just the donation itself\u2014it\u2019s the permission to pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend so much time in the data,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s good to pause and remember there are people behind the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

What stays with her isn\u2019t the count of books or hours logged, it\u2019s knowing that, somewhere, a child will see themselves in a story for the first time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community service isn\u2019t always glamorous. In fact, many times it requires sacrifice and sweat equity. Sometimes it looks like cardboard dust, ink-smudged thumbs and a row of bankers\u2019 boxes filling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","resource-type-newsroom","resource-type-newsroom-plus","resource-topic-community","focus-area-north-america"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nHow One Urban Scientist Helped Spark a Love of Reading in Nashville - Urban Science<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Community service isn\u2019t always glamorous. In fact, many times it requires sacrifice and sweat equity. 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