On a recent afternoon in the Team Read offices, Teens in Public Service (TIPS) intern Jessica Luu was lying on her back across a couple office chairs, waving a Kindle tablet above her head.

It might look funny, but it’s not surprising: Jessica is an intern who will bend over backward to help anyone.

This particular day, Jessica was trying to get the best reception on the Kindle, to download fun reading books for students in the Team Read Summer Program.

“I’m excited to see each student grow and improve their reading levels this summer,” she said.

Jessica joined the Team Read staff in late June, right when the Summer Program was set to launch, and she has been an invaluable addition to our team. In just a few short weeks, she created a lending library for Team Read kids to take home books over the summer.

She lugged dozens of crates and tubs out to Team Read sites in time for the program to start.

And she is now hard at work on our Kindle literacy project.

Jessica likes to have fun as she works, and she recently created a literacy Bingo game students can play together. In order to earn boxes on their Bingo cards, students must answer comprehension questions about the books they are reading.

Team Read and TIPS have partnered for more than a decade. Each summer, an intern assigned by TIPS joins the Team Read staff to help with our Summer Program, and to help prepare materials for Team Read in the fall.

“I’m always amazed at the dedication of the workers at Team Read, to their students, and to the program,” Jessica said.

And we are so grateful to Jessica, and TIPS, for making our summer easier, and a lot more fun!