Campus Service Organizations
Phi Theta Kappa
To say that our partner, Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society of the Two-Year College, hit the ground running is an understatement. Since announcing our relationship in late April 2006 at Phi Theta Kappa’s International Convention, more than 300 chapters have collected over 100,000 books, raising over $50,000 for their own campus projects!
Phi Theta Kappa has 1,200 chapters located in every US state, the US territories, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, Germany, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau. Each year, an estimated 200,000 students participate in Phi Theta Kappa programs, which focus on the Society’s four Hallmarks of Scholarship, Leadership, Service, and Fellowship. www.ptk.org
Golden Key International Honour Society
Signaling its international orientation by using the globally accepted spelling of “honour,” Golden Key has nearly 350 chapters at colleges and universities in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Since Fall 2006, more than 90 Golden Key chapters throughout North America have run campus textbook drives with Better World Books, collecting upwards of 90,000 books for their designated non-profit literacy programs, and raising over $45,000 for their own campus projects. The Society has designated literacy as its primary service focus – music to the ears of everyone at Better World Books. www.goldenkey.org
American Medical Students Association
In 2006 Sonia Sosa approached Better World Books about starting a book drive with AMSA to support global literacy efforts in Africa through the non-for-profit organization, Books for Africa. At the ’06 National Convention this drive raised 500 books in just a few days. Michael A. Casey succeeded Sonia in her position and saw the opportunity to take her dream and build upon it. During the months to come he would turn her efforts into a nation wide book drive that spanned the country with drives at 28 schools and an additional 10,500 books collected. Thanks to all the books AMSA has collected, Books for Africa can fund the shipment of 30,000 books to Africa, enough to fill 15 schools! Better World Books is incredibly thankful for these successful book drives and hopes the new school year will bring twice as many books from the AMSA community! www.amsa.org or http://www.amsa.org/chapoff/BWB.cfm
Circle K
Part of the Kiwanis International organization, co-educational Circle K International clubs are dedicated to improving their schools and communities through service. Its 12,228 student members belong to 507 clubs in 15 nations throughout North and South America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and West Africa, collectively performing more than one million hours of service annually. Circle K club members at Texas A&M demonstrated the impact of service in action by running one of Better World Books’ most successful book drives, collecting 8,000 books during a single campus textbook drive.
Members of the Better World Books team enjoyed spending time with Circle K members from around the world at the organization’s recent International Convention, held in Boston in mid- August, 2006. Circle K’s service initiative, Focusing on the Future: Children, encourages its members to address the issues facing children ages six to 13 and to find solutions through service for addressing these issues. With more than 100 million primary school-aged children not attending school worldwide, illiteracy ranks high among those issues. www.circlek.org
Alpha Phi Omega
At over 350 US chapters, Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity fulfills a purpose to develop leaders, promote friendship and provide service to humanity. Better World Books knows first-hand that this co-educational organization delivers on that purpose. Several dozen Alpha Phi Omega chapters have run Better World Book campus textbook drives since 2004. www.apo.org
FORGE
Started in 2003 by Stanford University student Kjerstin Erickson, FORGE, or Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment, connects students in the developed and developing world by placing its student Ambassadors in refugee camps. FORGE Ambassadors are encouraged to create and implement their own community service micro-projects that will contribute to refugee education, livelihood, and well-being.
An official operating partner of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, FORGE established a 20,000-volume library at the Meheba Refugee Camp in Zambia – the largest facility of its kind in the world – in 2004, only one year after the organization’s founding. FORGE Ambassadors study at 22 universities throughout North America, running campus textbook drives for Better World Books at many of their schools. www.forgeprogram.org
