Literacy:
Spanning the U.S.
Reader View: Literacy tutoring can
launch new lives
Santa
Fe New Mexican: 1.31.2015 by Linda Osborne
Several years ago — emerging from a
rather bad patch — I started exploring volunteering possibilities. Friends told
me about Literacy Volunteers of Santa Fe,
and thus began one of the most rewarding chapters of my life.
Shortly after signing up as a tutor
and completing my short training, I was introduced to my first student, Emma.
Not long before, she had driven up from Mexico with her family. With very
little English, she had bravely enrolled in the community college’s Associate
of Arts program and now needed help writing her papers and learning to have
confidence to speak in class. I have never met a person with as much drive and
ambition … and facing such odds.
[She and I were together for three
years. I saw her receive that associate degree, as well as move up the ranks at
her employment. She is now earning her bachelor’s degree online and has become
an excellent public speaker. She has no fears about taking on new challenges
and recently embarked on writing a memoir.
Of her tutoring experience, she
said recently, “Literacy Volunteers helped me start a new life for myself and
my family, and I encourage anyone to get involved — to learn, to teach. …” READ
MORE !
Tutors a ladder to the middle
class
Cap
Times: 2.03.2015 by Jeff Burkhart, Literacy
Network Executive Director
Since the great recession of 2008, average
wages have fallen and there are fewer middle-class jobs due to
technological advances and global outsourcing. Jobs in growing industries such
as health care and information technology are unfilled because workers
available don’t have the training needed to fill them. Filling these jobs
requires technical colleges to train and prepare adults for careers.
Much of the job growth in the
United States is happening in so-called “middle skill” work that requires some
technical college. Yet for most low-income adults with low basic reading and
math skills, completing a technical college education is extremely difficult.
In Wisconsin, as in much of the country, fewer than 10 percent of tech college
students who need extra reading and math support finish a college degree or
certificate.
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Adult literacy tutors fill this
vital coaching role. They build strong connections with their learners, and
provide academic and personal supports. Many tutors dedicate years to the adult
learners they support. In many cases, adults learners successfully achieve
their goal because they develop skills and confidence through individual
attention from tutors. With the help of tutors, many students navigate
complicated enrollment systems, complete their studies, earn degrees or
certificates and begin careers in growth industries.
Literacy tutors change lives. READ
MORE !
Literacy Program High School Grad
Finds a New Career
Madison County Courier: 2.2015
Submitted by Cindy McCall,
Literacy student Rob Barry has some
words of advice for those who need to get their high school equivalency (HSE): “Get
going now. You never know when that
opportunity comes up to get a better job.”
Through his girlfriend, Barry heard
about adult education programs at Sullivan
Free Library and contacted literacy coordinator Donna Bocketti. At the time he was applying for a position at
a utility company in Syracuse.
Sullivan Free Library’s literacy
programs are run by Madison
County Reads Ahead, which offers instruction at seven local libraries in
Madison County. Learners work one-on-one
with trained volunteer tutors at flexible times that suit their schedules. Tutoring programs are learner-centered, and
can especially help students who find they don’t get enough attention in a classroom
setting.
When Rob Barry was growing up, he
attended three different school districts.
Barry knew how to work hard and always had a job. When he was 14, he worked on a farm every day
while attending school. He completed
10th grade at Chittenango High School, but found he had to support
himself. He left high school to work
for a fence company. READ MORE !
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