In October 2025, the University of Georgia’s Beta Tau Chapter of La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc. (LUL) began a year-long book drive. The fraternity partnered with UGA’s chapter of the Growing Ramos Association Cultivating Inclusion and Academic Support (GRACIAS), a nonprofit focused on providing resources and mentorship to Latino students and families with the goal of expanding access to higher education.
Ivan Mendoza, president, public relations chair and community service chair of LUL, began the book drive to share the same inspiration and empowerment he found in books.
“The reason I started this year-long book drive is because there were specific authors and writers and poets that I read during middle school and high school, and those authors pushed me to pursue higher education because of the words they utilize in their books,” Mendoza said. “I was inspired by the kids and characters that look like me, that had a similar experience of culture like me. I saw them go to college in the books, and I saw them pursue something greater than just graduating high school.”
One of LUL’s national philanthropic programs is the PATHE Initiative (Providing Access to Higher Education), which aims to support students “in their quest to graduate from a four year college,” through efforts including mentorship, workshops and advocacy. Mendoza hopes to contribute to this initiative by providing books to elementary, middle and high school students, citing the integral role books played in his own pursuit of higher education.
“I would not be at the University of Georgia had I never read a single book from James Baldwin or Toni Morrison or Elizabeth Acevedo,” Mendoza said. “Even my UGA essay was about how a book impacted my life … Without reading ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ by Ocean Voung, I would have never gotten into UGA because I would have not known how to formulate my words or my essay. I wouldn’t know how to find my voice without books.”
Alongside the PATHE Initiative and his own experience, Mendoza was inspired by Sigma Lambda Upsilon or Señoritas Latinas Unidas (SLU), a sorority that partners with LUL and focuses their philanthropic efforts on literacy.
“There’s no active members of SLU currently at the University of Georgia, but I really am inspired by them and I’m inspired by their philanthropy,” Mendoza said. “I want to bring something to the University of Georgia inspired by them showing people that if, and when, SLU ever comes back to this campus, this is the potential that they have.”
While donations of all books are welcome, SAT and ACT prep books are specifically requested.
“GRACIAS really wants to bridge the gap between young Latinos to pursue higher education,” Annette Compean, president and founder of GRACIAS at UGA, said. “I know [ACT and SAT] books are really expensive, so being able to have people donate them to the high schoolers can really help bridge that gap and help them achieve higher education.”
After the book drive ends, half of the donated books will be given to nonprofit organizations such as Books for Keeps on behalf of LUL, while the other half will be donated to Clarke Central High School and Cedar Shoals High School on behalf of GRACIAS.
The Clarke County School District recorded the lowest four-year and second lowest five-year graduation rates in the state in 2023, but has improved consistently since. The book drive, which aims to bolster increasing graduation rates, has currently received more than 300 books.
Efforts have also been made to expand the drive to other colleges across Georgia and beyond. Mendoza provides other chapters with outlines detailing potential recipients for similar drives, as well as reimbursement for any costs incurred from hosting these drives. The first school Mendoza contacted was Georgia State University, working with Josue Portillo, a member of both LUL and GRACIAS, to officially begin the drive in November 2025.
“ LUL has the philanthropy for providing access to higher education which abbreviates the path [for students],” Portillo said. “We truly believe that literacy is a big part of that because you can’t really have a population of students coming into higher education without being properly able to read [and] write.”
Efforts are currently underway with LUL chapters to expand the drive to Syracuse University, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Kennesaw State University and Chapman University.
The book drive at UGA is accepting donations until May 2026. Donations can be made in the office of Sean Lockhart, the program coordinator for the Multicultural Greek Council at UGA.
“It’s just been really great to see the students and the people who are working behind the scenes so passionate about the topic,” Lockhart said. “That’s what feels so refreshing to me as an advisor, is there are people really wanting to do the critical work in our community because they’ve been impacted personally.”
In the future, Mendoza plans to continue hosting similar initiatives focused on providing students with school supplies, supporting educators and providing students in Latin American countries with access to educational resources.
“To change the entire United States of America, that’s a big ask, but as long as I can benefit at least one student, at least encourage one student through literature, or one student through our different initiatives that LUL will be hosting, then that will be enough for me,” Mendoza said.
