Hurricane Melissa was the strongest storm to ever hit Jamaica, killing at least 45 people and damaging 215,000 buildings in October 2025. The destruction included 59 Jamaica Library Service branches and 32,000 of their books, a major blow to the organization's resources.
So when Johns Hopkins University undergraduates in the Clark Scholars Program travelled to Jamaica last month, they brought 100 extra books in their luggage.
"It was a limited number of books we could bring, since we'd be flying by plane," says junior Lola Jean Baptiste, who carried 20 books. "[The librarians] were very grateful, because it's a part of a larger project to rebuild the libraries."
Established in 2016 with a $15 million investment in the Whiting School of Engineering from the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, the program supports a cohort of service-minded undergraduates and is designed not only to attract talented engineering students to Johns Hopkins, but also to prepare them for leadership roles. Over spring break, 19 of these scholars had the opportunity to visit Jamaica to learn about leadership and social entrepreneurship, including a visit to the National Library of Jamaica in Kingston, where they donated books to be distributed across the country.
The group only had two and a half weeks to collect their donations, and were further limited by what they could carry. Round two of the book drive, however, will be much larger.
At the start of the fall 2026 semester, a second wave of books will be shipped from the port of Baltimore to Jamaica, courtesy of the Clark Scholars. Both new and gently used donations are welcome from all members of the community.
"There is a need for books of all levels, from those for young children to university-level materials," says Clark Scholars program manager Angie Urrutia. "Any books that people might have that they no longer need, we would love to take them and find them a new home in Jamaica."
According to Urrutia, the library service needs 50,000 books to rebuild and strengthen their collection. Donations are already coming in from around the world, but every hardcover, paperback, and board book counts.
"This is an effort that goes beyond just what we're doing here at Hopkins," says Urrutia. "Hopefully we can all come together and make an impact."
For scholars like Jean Baptiste, the book drive is a way to pay it forward to the next generation of students.
"Growing up, I used to always have a book right up against my face," she says. "The library was always my safe haven ... Books are a good source of education [and] an amazing source of entertainment. You learn while reading. You learn while having fun."
