Please join us in welcoming our new summer intern, Isabelle Karpin. Born and raised in Johnson County, Isabelle has been a dedicated patron to the Johnson County Library system her entire life. It was when she came of age to serve on the teen editorial board for The Johnson County Library’s teen literary arts magazine elementia that her years of service took off. During her high school years, Isabelle contributed to elementia issues XVI-XIX as both a writer and an editor. This summer, Isabelle hopes to gain experience in communications by contributing to the Foundation’s blog, social media pages, and other publications celebrating your impact.
Greetings Johnson County Public Library donors and patrons,
My name is Isabelle Karpin, and I am the new summer intern with the Johnson County Library Foundation. I spend my academic year studying English at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where I will enter upon my senior year this fall. I was born and raised in Johnson County and attended the Barstow School where I graduated in 2022.
Interning with the Johnson County Public Library brings back the exhilarating times I spent in service to the library as a teenager. Throughout my high school years, I served on the teen editorial board of the Johnson County Library’s own elementia magazine. I was fortunate to also have been included in several issues of the publication as a writer. My memories of reading at the issue release reception remain some of the happiest and most enriching moments of my teenage years. In fact, every moment of making elementia was an enriching experience in-itself.
I remember vividly one meeting very early on in my time with elementia led by youth librarian Cassidy Coles. Having placed a copy of the American Heritage Dictionary in front of each teen member, Cassidy began an engaging discussion on words and comprehension. She chose the word “prehensile” to illustrate the utility of the edition. It means “able to seize, grasp, or hold, especially by wrapping around an object,” i.e. “a monkey’s prehensile tail. The entry was paired with an image of an opossum hanging upside down as well as an example in context, the phrase having “a prehensile mind.” Cassidy gifted each of us a copy of her favorite dictionary, a tool not only for comprehension but for exploration.
My copy of the American Heritage Dictionary is an example of a tool, a guidebook I carried with me as I graduated from elementia into my years of literary study. Interning with the Johnson County Library Foundation will add to the many tools I’ve reaped from the Johnson County Library’s programs.
Many thanks to the Johnson County Library Foundation’s generous donors who have made my wonderful experiences with the library possible. I look forward to giving back to those who have uplifted me this summer at the Johnson County Public Library.