Meet Hanna Ebrahimi, president of the National Honor Society, secretary of Key Club, treasurer of the Spanish Honor Society and Highlights board member at Coral Gables Senior High School. Growing up with an instilled sense of service from her parents, Ebrahimi learned to recognize the impact of her actions. Her community service extends from food drives to clothing drives to her creation of the Cavalier Prep Program.

Raised in Coconut Grove by two parents engaged in their religious community, Ebrahimi learned the importance of service at a young age. She began her service efforts at her middle school, Ponce de Leon, where the importance of helping others within the community was integral to the learning environment. As president of the National Junior Honor Society, she organized a food drive for the homeless in her community. When arriving at Gables, Ebrahimi noticed the community’s need for service and since then, she brainstormed and planned creative ways to help out her fellow peers and teachers in their times of need.

A recent project of Ebrahimi has been the Cavalier Test Preparation Program in which she created a book library to lend Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Scholastic Aptitude Test and American College Test prep books out to Gables students. She collected books through school and worked closely with her peers, particularly Chloe Grant, and finished collecting books in March. Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit when they were about to distribute the books. The two collected the books and stored them in her house because they were unable to use the library bookshelf location at school.

“A test prep book library is an amazing resource to have because I find the books to be helpful and knowing that I have access to some is reassuring,” junior Sabrina Bonavita said.

Throughout the summer, Ebrahimi also reached out to alumni to receive more donations. There are over 70 books in the library and 15-20 more that people will be donating in the upcoming weeks. To stay organized and ensure that all books are accounted for, Ebrahimi created a spreadsheet and form to track the books as they are being lent. This system also ensures that those who fill out a request receive their book. She has also created labels with a serial code number to be able to properly identify the test prep books.

Ebrahimi’s inspiration for this project stemmed from her AP English Language course where she needed books that were expensive and would be penalized for not having them. She was frustrated and felt bad for her parents, so Ebrahimi would reach out to upperclassmen and would also go to the library as a solution. However, this still created conflicts as her twin sister would end up needing access to the same books. Through this experience, Ebrahimi firsthand witnessed the financial strain purchasing books can place on a family. In her junior year, she continued to see this pattern; ACT and SAT books in addition to private tutors often become financial burdens that many families cannot afford to bear. Ebrahimi was inspired by her experience and decided she wanted to help those in similar situations who needed test prep books but did not have the means to purchase them. For instructions on how to safely check out a book, take a look at @thecavalierprep on Instagram.

There is always going to be a need for test prep books because people will always find themselves in difficult financial situations. The book library will be passed on to the National Honor Society and board members will manage the test prep books to ensure that materials stay updated with the current curriculum. Hopefully her work can be continued in order to help future students at Gables for years to come.