My name is Veer Chourasia, and I’m a 14‑year‑old freshman at Apex Friendship High School. For my Social Impact Project, I designed, constructed, and painted a Little Free Library entirely from scratch. I chose this project because I’ve always loved building—from Legos to furniture—and I thrive on hands‑on challenges. When the opportunity arose to create a library that shares books with the community, I eagerly accepted, filled with excitement and purpose.

What was my goal for the project and how did I achieve it?

My summer impact project is all about spreading knowledge, my community will forever be impacted by the shared education and I will be by my gained experience.The main goal of my project was to strengthen community connections and give people access to books no matter where they are. The way I achieved this was by designing, building, and setting up a space where people can freely exchange books.

How did this project impact me? This project impacted me by teaching me new architectural concepts and improving ones I’ve already learned. It helped me enhance my creativity and come up with ideas to work around and solve problems.

How has this project impacted others and the community? This project impacts others and the community by giving them another place to give and access books. It gives them another spot to interact with each other and spread kindness through sharing.

What are some lessons I learned? One valuable lesson I learned is that over 3 billion people have limited to no book access, and each library is one step toward a more accessible education and literacy for everyone. Another lesson I learned is to never be ungrateful for where you are right now because other people have to work harder to get to your position. 

What are some challenges and struggles that I faced? Some challenges and struggles I faced were overcoming the lack of experience. As I built the library, I learned more and more about woodworking and architectural concepts. Another challenge was working with a lack of materials. I couldn’t get every piece of wood to the size I exactly wanted it to, so I had to work around the challenge by altering the build plan to fit my requirements. 

What do I envision for this project in the future? For the future, I see this project bringing the community together to share and read books. People in the area who don’t live near a library or don’t have easy access to books can rely on a place to borrow books.