The Power of Reading: A Q&A With Mr. Obianwu at City Springs

Akosa Obianwu, City Springs Elementary/Middle School’s newest Community Liaison with community partner Elev8 Baltimore, taps into one of his favorite family traditions – reading – to inspire student and parent engagement at City Springs.

The goal of his position, which began last August, is to implement targeted community engagement strategies with City Springs families to create robust parent-school connections and infrastructure to support family engagement and literacy. The short version: Create kids and families who love to read. 

In celebration of March’s upcoming Read Across America Week, we talked with Mr. Obi, as his students call him, about his love of reading and the innovative ways he is sparking this passion across the City Springs’ community.

What is your role with City Springs?

A: I am contributing to the Community Schools strategy implemented by Elev8 Baltimore at City Springs by working directly with students and families to promote family literacy and community engagement as a part of Elev8’s Children & Youth Services Division. At City Springs, I was trusted with creating a pilot program for parent engagement called City Springs Parent College, a free program for parents and guardians that utilizes comprehensive, social determinants survey data to provide resources, educational materials, and interaction with reading directly from the school and into the home, prioritizing accessibility and collaboration. Parent College consists of five courses across assisting in children’s academic development at home, a community resource bank, a social support group, a book club, and parent-led workshops.

I am currently most engaged with Attitude Book Club, our parent book club course in Parent College, where we have begun reading The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. I create weekly challenging reading and writing skills for parents to administer to their students. Skills for Pre-K-4th grade focus on sight words and sentence building, while 5th-8th grade skills focus on reading stamina, nonfiction reading comprehension, writing, and vocabulary building.

For students, we did the Book Report of the Month afterschool program activity in October. I loved being able to see the students’ abilities to express themselves in written form. Other initiatives have included distributing books across the school to every classroom before the Christmas Break and reading with students during the afterschool program. 

Why are you so passionate about reading?

As a child, I loved reading, writing, and having books. My favorite books growing up were the Hunger Games trilogy of novels because of the incredibly thorough, dramatic, and very political world that the author, Suzanne Collins, created for her characters to live in and for audiences to digest as readers. 

How did your parents support your love of reading and academic success?

Several things my parents did really well that made me successful in school were keeping books ready and available for us in the home. They required us to read books constantly and independently and challenged us to read chapter books as early as we could. Among other things, they also built vocabulary with us by making us watch programs like the news or whatever they were watching on TV that was appropriate for us. These things made me love reading and seek ways to grow my imagination through books as a first recourse rather than as an afterthought. 

Why is reading so critical to elementary and middle school students?

Reading is so important as we approach Read Across America because language is the first thing that children learn as babies. We do our jobs as adults and parents in raising them correctly when we teach them to use language correctly in all its forms and at every level of difficulty. Reading is necessary for engaging in conversations that help us learn and grow into our purpose as well as how we fight for change and progress in our communities.

What do you love about working at City Springs?

The families and students here are passionate and want the best for each other. I believe working here has been very important for my future career aspirations in public health because of my passions for and experiences in community engagement and program management. I have been able to hone my skills outside of the sheltered university environment, network with decision-makers, collaborate with stakeholders, and deliver on promises and projects. It is very rewarding.

Tell us about your background.

I am from Prince George’s County, Maryland and was raised in a Nigerian household. I came to Baltimore in 2021 for my undergraduate education at The Johns Hopkins University where I earned my Bachelor of Arts in Public Health and Spanish. I am a current Master of Public Health Candidate at The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. I aim to complete my graduate studies this coming fall. 

I contribute to research as a Spanish team assistant editor for Keywords for Black Louisiana, which is a historical research project focused on chronicling, mapping, and educating the community about enslaved and free Black life in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast from the French and Spanish colonial administrations from 1722 to 1803.

What do you love about Baltimore?

My favorite thing is the local food scene, especially Ekiben and Jollof Bowl. Baltimore has become a home away from home in so many ways over these past five years, and the family of people that I have gained here reminds me that I am never far from people who care about me and whom I care about in turn. 

Thank you, Mr. Obi, for bringing your love of literacy and community to City Springs!