Sitting in a chair, Amina Raïss’s fingers tap away on the keyboard as she makes a few small edits to her unpublished story. She has a plan for how she wants to publish her book, and is doing everything she can so one day she can see it on a bookstore shelf.
“I don’t want to self-publish, because I feel going through the traditional publishing route would be a lot easier and ensure that it’s a good quality product that I can put out. That way, if I want to do more down the line, it will be more structured,” Raïss said. “It’ll be a nice goal to reach by the end of my freshman year [of college].”
Raïss has accomplished many things during her four years of high school. One of them was writing a five-hundred-page book, partially inspired by her favorite childhood fantasy series, “Keeper of the Lost Cities.” Raïss’s novel falls into the same fantasy genre, featuring unique creatures traveling throughout their world’s realm with twists and turns along the way. Raïss’s love for reading and writing fueled her motivation to start organizing book drives.
“I thought, [since] I love to read so much, I’m sure plenty of other kids would love to read too, but just don’t have access to it. So I started doing book drives during COVID,” Raïss said. “My mom’s friends, my dad’s friends, and my friends would drop off books, and then I would give them to my mom to hand them out at work.”
Raïss had a unique experience going through with her book drives during the COVID-19 pandemic, where masking rules restricted how she could deliver materials to people in need.
“When I was delivering the books, I wasn’t able to be as hands on, giving them to people because of the safety restrictions and everything, especially because some book drives were at hospitals and homeless shelters.”
Despite the obstacles she faced during COVID, Raïss still figured out a way to accomplish what she set her mind to. The time she took to do these book drives gave the recipients a way to rediscover a love for reading. In doing these events, Raïss also saw a change in herself.
“It was my first time doing something that felt big and important. So it was fun to have that experience, feeling like I was doing something that was going to help people, and give back to my community,” Raïss said.
As Amina Raïss’s best friend, Yara El-Hasan has witnessed many of Raïss’s passions and talents develop over time and influence one another. The idea of creating a book drive had stemmed from Girl Scouts, which had exposed both of the girls to multiple service projects and programs over the years.
“I’m so glad I’ve been able to watch [Raïss] grow as a writer and also as a person in general,” El-Hasan said. “She never did [the book drives] for a prize or an award or something to put on her resume. She did it because she has such a deep love for reading, and [wanted] other people to also have the ability to experience that if they’re unable to reach that themselves.”
As Raïss closes this chapter of her life in high school, she will be opening a new one at UC Berkeley college, bringing her book-loving spirit with her into whichever career she chooses.
“I feel like college will be really valuable for me, because I don’t have a clear path. My dream is to be an author, but also a lawyer. In college, [I’ll be] able to take so many more classes of different ranges, and have more freedom when making my schedule,” Raïss said. “In freshman year [at UC Berkeley] it will be important for me to figure out what pathway I’m most interested in, if it’s with the environment, or if it’s English. Maybe if I find out that I really do love both of them, I can do environmental law. But [thanks to the plethora of opportunities] I feel like, no matter what happens, I’ll be able to find my passion and pursue something great.”