Tonight I met up with Salena Sullivan, a sophomore at Harvard. Roanoke readers may remember my story on her last year — she was raised by a single mom and by her community librarian, the fabulous Carla Lewis.
We met for coffee and then she came home for an impromptu dinner, followed by an outing to Trader Joe’s. Our girl at Harvard, as the regulars at the Gainsboro library like to call her, is doing quite well, thank you. She’s gotten used to earning the occasional B
She gave me course advice, told me where to get the free shuttle from the Radcliffe quad to the yard and advised me to “get a grip” on the number of courses I’m planning to shop. “That many? Really?”
Salena will be reshelving books, etc., for her work-study job at Widener, the main library on campus, where I’ve reserved a carrel on the sixth floor, thinking the top floor would be warmer in the colder months. “Yeah, right,” she said.
It’s great to have a young mentor like Salena here. She’s even offered to house- and Lucky-sit for us!
Photo by Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times
When Salena told the people at the library she got into Harvard, old men set down the newspapers they were reading and wept. Librarian Carla Lewis, her mentor, screamed.