L.A. District & Snapchat Created a Celebrity Book Club for Students. More Online Engagement Is in the Works
Renowned singer Alicia Keys generously recommended a touching book to the almost 700,000 students of the Los Angeles Unified School District. She made this recommendation available for free on Snapchat, marking the launch of the A-List Book Club.
Alicia Keys is just one of the celebrities participating in a virtual initiative led by the district to make a positive impact on students. District superintendent Austin Beutner emphasizes the importance of not only meeting students where they are, but also engaging them and utilizing the potential of digital connectivity. Beutner believes that merely replicating what happens in a classroom is missing the point, but by leveraging connectivity, a Snapchat book club could become a long-lasting endeavor. He poses the question, "Why not?"
The collaboration between Beutner and Evan Spiegel, the founder of Snap Inc., began well before the pandemic. It was an effort to provide new educational experiences to the 80 percent of L.A. students who live in poverty. Beutner highlights the disparity between the Snap workforce and the students in public schools and acknowledges the absence of a clear path for these students to work for Snap. Instead of creating a single coding class for 11th-graders, for instance, Beutner and Spiegel decided that Snap could have a broader impact by starting earlier and equipping students with literacy, math, and critical thinking skills.
When the pandemic hit and schools had to be closed, Beutner faced a new challenge: how to utilize the newfound connectivity and engage students where they are. He saw Snapchat as the ideal platform to begin this endeavor. Beutner explains that the success of Oprah’s book club in the past was due to its authenticity, with the audience perceiving her and her guests as genuine. The A-List Book Club was launched at the end of May, featuring four celebrities—Alicia Keys, Russell Westbrook, Kendall Jenner, and Noah Centineo—sharing their favorite books on Snapchat and YouTube. Through donations, every student in the district has the opportunity to receive a digital copy of the books discussed. The list of celebrities participating in the book club will expand over time.
Snap generously offered the time and expertise of its content team for this initiative, and Richard Lovett, the president of Creative Artists Agency, has pro bono taken on the task of connecting celebrities to the cause. The district has established a charity to raise funds to cover the costs of book donations, ensuring the program’s sustainability.
In a statement, Evan Spiegel expressed his enthusiasm for supporting public education and creating new avenues for student engagement outside the classroom. He believes that education creates opportunities and is inspired by working with Los Angeles Unified to provide resources that lay the foundation for future success.
Beutner confirms that the connection with students is successful. On the first day since Alicia Keys’ video was posted, over 500 students downloaded a copy of "Brown Girl Dreaming."
Using Snapchat to engage with young people, particularly high school students, allows celebrity readers to directly communicate with students about their favorite books on a platform already favored by high schoolers. Beutner explains that this approach aims to make the experience authentic, hoping that students will read, engage, and contemplate the ideas they are presented with. All the books in the A-List Book Club were chosen by the celebrities themselves, and Beutner stresses that he does not want any control over the selection, as any book that is read is considered worthwhile. He believes that it will only succeed if Alicia Keys genuinely shares what she is reading or finds meaning in.
"We are optimistic that success will lead to more success," Beutner expresses. "Embarking on a new endeavor or trend is always challenging in the beginning. I aspire for this model to inspire greater support and for other school districts to explore similar approaches."
