A UH alumna kept in mind her difficult experiences of trying to resell textbooks during her time as a student when she created a website where students could go to buy or sell textbooks.
Emely Galvez, 22, founded the online service Houston Book Exchange in November 2010, just a month before she graduated from UH.
The website, www.houstonbookexchange.com, allows college students to sell their textbooks straight to other students, essentially eliminating the need to post signs on bulletin boards around campus, or to sell on sites like Amazon or even to bookstores, which generally give students only a fraction of their original investment.
“I started it because I always sold my textbooks to other students by using Facebook, Craigslist, eBay or posting flyers on campus,” Galvez said. “I wanted to create one website to make it easier for all students to connect, instead of going through the hassle of using all the other methods available.”
The website aims to connect students with each other so that they can buy, sell or swap textbooks with each other.
“The goal of Houston Book Exchange is to cut out the bookstore in order to make and save students more money,” Galvez said.
For the upcoming summer and fall academic terms, Houston Book Exchange will be offering a book scholarship for students going to college in the Houston area.
The summer scholarship is $150 and the fall scholarship is $300. One scholarship will be awarded per semester.
To apply for the scholarship, a student must write an essay of no more than one page explaining why he or she deserves a book scholarship.
Interested persons must also be current member of Houston Book Exchange. Membership for the service costs $1.99 for 30 days.
As a member, students can post and request an unlimited amount of books on the website.
“I hope to attract enough members to one day have advertisers on the website so that I can offer this service to students for free,” Galvez said.
Summer scholarship entries are due by May 31. The deadline for the fall book scholarship is July 31.
Textbook scholarship entries should be emailed to [email protected].
