Donna Rosenblum Visits Mepham

This year Mepham's National English Honor Society hosted Donna Rosenblum, a former librarian and now the supervisor of School Library Services for Nassau BOCES and the Executive Director of Reason2Smile.

Donna Rosenblum speaks to students in the Mepham High School Library

The book that Mrs. Rosenblum came to discuss is Neema's Reason to Smile by Patricia Newman. She did not write the book or illustrate its pictures, but she did provide countless hours of research to the book's author. In fact, it is amazing how much research went into this picture book. While Neema's Reason to Smile is a work of fiction, it is based on the real-life students at Jambo Jipya School who "understand the power of education." Everything that you see and hear in this book came from Mrs. Rosenblum's descriptions. Newman had actually never visited the school before writing the book, but she did have some ideas of what it looked and sounded like because she did visit the country before.

Mrs. Rosenblum spoke to the students about the Jambo Jipya School in the town of Mtwapa, Kenya. She told us about Christine Mwende, the school's madam and how often students of the school do not have enough money for items like uniforms or school supplies. She also told us that many of the families in this part of Kenya do not understand that education can lead to a better life. She talked about the process of showing Patricia all of this information as well in the form of anecdotes, photographs, and videos.

Mrs. Rosenblum delivered a high-energy presentation that truly informed the audience on the many discrepancies in education across the world. She answered questions from the audience and left students with a taste for African culture and society. Stay tuned for a project that has arisen from this visit...

Photo taken with the GoPro HERO6