by Sarah Burnett Current co-Editor-in-Chief
Do you have any old AP or SAT/ACT textbooks that are sitting in your basement and picking up dust? You do? Well luckily for you, two River Hill students founded a business called Amber Prep that has been gaining quite the popularity within our community.
River Hill juniors Daniel He and Shivum Pandove co-founded Amber Prep last year, because they noticed that many students in our area take a heavy AP course load and want to do well on their SAT or ACT exams. This leads many students to buying an excessive amount of test prep books, which can add up in price very quickly.
“When you think about it, buying something so expensive is a bad investment just for a single use,” says co-founder Daniel He. “That’s why we created our business, Amber Prep. It is an online platform for students to buy and sell their used textbooks. It creates a platform for upperclassmen to list their books on our website for sale, and sell them to underclassmen who will use them in the future,” he says.
Although the Amber Prep business is not a non-profit organization, they have partnered with several River Hill community service organizations to donate to local Howard County charities and foundations.
Amber Prep first partnered with the RHHS Key Club, and together they hosted several spring community service events. Throughout the months of March and April, students were able to buy and purchase textbooks through Amber Prep, and all of the profits were donated to the Bright Minds Foundation–a foundation which enhances the educational experiences of all Howard County school students. They were able to raise and donate $200 from textbook sales alone.
In late April, Amber Prep also partnered with the RHHS Angels Network. The club set up a booth outside of the Giant in the River Hill Village Center, and River Hill students were able to buy and sell their used textbooks for community service hours. “That was definitely my favorite event we’ve done so far. I got to have fun with my friends selling textbooks, all while raising money for a charitable cause,” Daniel said. All of the proceeds from that event were also donated to Bright Minds.
In the future, Daniel and Shivum are hoping to host more events with school clubs and expand beyond our River Hill community. “I want to some day reach all of Howard County–there are currently officers of Amber Prep at other Howard County Schools, but the selling and buying of textbooks mainly takes place in RHHS,” said Daniel when he was asked about what the future of Amber Prep would look like. “Shivum and I are also going to be seniors next year, so we would like to elect new leadership for our business to continue helping students throughout our community.”