Welcome to our new blog series, Plot Twist! Here, we'll be sharing the stories of people in the Words Alive community — stories of change, growth, and maybe a few surprising twists! We hope that through these stories, you'll get to know our community a little better and see the power of literacy come to life.
A picture of Logan.
Meet Logan Holland, one of our awesome Words Alive volunteers! Logan is currently a graduate student at UC San Diego studying mitochondria and the heart, and she is a passionate and dedicated supporter of our mission. We sat down with Logan to talk about the surprising connection between science and literature, the role of books in her own life, and why she volunteers with Words Alive.
Logan joined us in 2018, during her second year of college. She was feeling unfulfilled in her undergraduate science classes—“like I needed more words and literature in my life,” she puts it—so she did a Google search and discovered Words Alive. She started out as an ABG and Art & Lit volunteer and has gone on to support us in many different roles since!
Logan's current favorite book, Bone Light by Orlando White.
“Literacy definitely impacts every single facet of everyday life,” she says, describing how literacy factors into civic engagement, navigating the healthcare system, and developing critical thinking skills (“becoming a better human!” as Logan puts it). And at Words Alive, she says, “Everyone is super passionate about reading and really spreading reading as not just a hobby, but as something that can really further education, further people’s opportunities, further people’s futures. That’s why I’ve stayed and tried to get involved as much as I can.”
In addition to the importance of basic literacy skills, she's passionate about the power of story to change lives. “Everything I did in college is because of books that I read as a kid,” she explains, “which is why I want to work with this organization.”
Words have held an important role in Logan’s own life ever since she was little, a book-loving kid reading for hours to pass the time while her parents worked. But until she began volunteering with Words Alive, she didn't fully appreciate how far books have gotten her. “Only one of my parents went to college, so I did not have this strong academic upbringing,” she says. But today, as a graduate student, she concludes: “I think the only reason I’m here is because I was reading a lot of books.”
““Doctors are interacting with humanity in a pretty raw form, right? Literature is doing the same thing, but just in a different way. It’s just really getting into what makes us human.””
The books that she read inspired her to explore the connection between science and stories with a major in biochemistry and a minor in literature and writing. “I like to think of myself as a double major at heart,” she says. “I wanted to understand humans biochemically, and then figuratively with literature.”
Her passion for exploring the human condition eventually led her to the field of medicine. “Doctors are interacting with humanity in a pretty raw form, right?” Logan points out. “Literature is doing the same thing, but just in a different way. It’s just really getting into what makes us human.”
She points to the framework of narrative medicine as an example. In narrative medicine, clinicians are trained to see illness, diagnosis and treatment as a story. “They’re having doctors read books and take creative writing classes to foster that empathy because that is super important in clinical practice, but also everyday life,” she explains. Logan sees this as evidence that stories are vital for helping us connect with and understand each other more deeply. “The more books we can get everyone reading, the better,” she declares. And through her work with Words Alive, she’s helped us do just that.
A screenshot from our Zoom conversation with Logan.
Since the pandemic hit, Logan has really taken leadership in training other volunteers to make an impact in this new virtual environment. She’s always enthusiastic and eager to help others understand the impact of the work they’ll be doing—she even recruited her roommate to start writing curriculum for us!
Throughout this experience, she has been surprised and encouraged by the amount of people who have stepped up to help. “It has been really amazing to work with Sara [our Communications Manager] and just recruit a lot more people because I think the more people helping, the bigger the better, the bigger the impact,” she says. She misses seeing the results of her work in person, but until then, she says, “I really hope that Words Alive can keep using the power of the internet to spread their message and recruit more volunteers.”
Of all the many hats she’s worn at Words Alive, from helping with Art & Lit to translating literacy sessions in Barrio Logan to virtually training other volunteers, writing curriculum is her favorite. Through her time volunteering in classrooms before COVID-19, she saw firsthand how good curriculum impacted the students she worked with; well-written questions got them engaged with a story, excited about a character or passionate about a cause.
A student speaks about the 2019 Art & Lit project, “The Radius of All of Us.”
She remembers one Art & Lit experience in particular, when she was able to see the impact of the book The Radius of Us on one of the students. “He gave a speech of gratitude of how much this book changed his perception of the world,” Logan says, smiling. “That is my favorite memory. To see that impact in one person was very, very cool.”
Knowing that the questions she writes can lead to such powerful reactions is why she loves curriculum writing so much. “I’m just writing words on my computer at home,” she says, “but people are interacting with these words and they’re becoming ideas, or passions, or career choices—which is my life story.”
Logan, we’re so grateful for the time and energy you dedicate to bringing the power of words to our community. Thank you for sharing your story with us!