Literacy Volunteers of America, Essex & Passaic Counties, NJ Inc.

August 2017

Volume 5, Issue 8

The Insider

The Insider, the monthly newsletter of LVA, Essex & Passaic Counties, will keep you in the loop on all of the organization’s upcoming events.

Abby Kane leads a popular conversation group class for advanced ESOL students at the Bloomfield Public Library. The group never seems to stop growing and that’s just fine with Abby.

Literacy Volunteers of America Essex & Passaic Counties

90 Broad Street, 2nd Floor, Bloomfield, NJ 07003
(973) 566-6200, ext. 217 or 225

195 Gregory Avenue, 2nd Floor, Passaic, NJ 07055
(973) 470-0039

Cristhian Barcelos      -Executive Director
                                           [email protected]
Russell Ben Ali         -Recruitment & Training Coordinator
                         [email protected]
Jorge Chavez               -Data Processing Coordinator
                                           [email protected]
Debbie Graham           -Education Coordinator
                                           [email protected]
Mary O’Connor          -Trainer & Tutor Support Specialist
                                           [email protected]
Marisol Ramirez          -Student Coordinator
                                           [email protected]

Greetings LVA Family,

Ever wonder what your personality has to do with your effectiveness as a tutor, a teacher, an educator? You’d be surprised, says Stephanie Mazzeo-Caputo, a career coach who has spent more than two decades in human resources. Stephanie will kick off our fall series of tutor support workshops next month with a session that will examine the four basic personality styles and help you develop a keen understanding of your own personality style, including its strengths and stress points. It also will show you how to adapt to the personality style of others. Details follow on the next page.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey has created a handy set of materials for immigrants. “Know Your Rights Cards – What To Do If You Are Stopped by Police or Immigration Officials in New Jersey,” designed as a carry along guide for immigrants, can be ordered online or downloaded in English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, or Urdu at https://goo.gl/N2ckvQ

Links to the web pages of the ACLU New Jersey Chapter website and immigrant advocacy and legal services groups can be found on our web site: www.lvaep.org/immigration.html

The Bloomfield Public Library is holding a special information session for anyone with questions about U.S. citizenship. “A Conversation About How to Become a U.S. Citizen” takes place Monday, August 7, from 5:30-7:30 pm. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) invites you to join the conversation and learn about the naturalization process and what you need to become a U.S. citizen. USCIS representatives will be on hand to answer your questions. The event is free and open to the public.

In the News

To view the following stories, copy and paste the highlighted website into an internet search bar.

‘Who learns foreign language better – introverts or extraverts?’ Science Daily   https://goo.gl/qrpnwT

‘Recent college grads are leaving N.J. in record numbers. Here’s why.’ NJ.com https://goo.gl/Zs9JEX

‘Literacy tutors address different skills ,’ Times News Record       https://goo.gl/uYkove

‘Pioneer in Adult Education Looks Back,” Inside Higher Ed    https://goo.gl/gjfe7X

Esther, an LVA student who has made good progress, endured a difficult childhood with no schooling in Ghana, until sympathetic relatives sent for her.

Tutor Support Workshop

“How Understanding Personality Can Improve Your Tutoring,”
with Stephanie Mazzeo-Caputo
Bloomfield Public Library
90 Broad Street, 2nd Floor Boardroom
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
1:00-2:30 pm
Monday, September 18, 2017

Tutor Training Workshops

Bloomfield Public Library
by Nina Peyser
90 Broad Street, 2nd Floor Boardroom
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tuesdays and Thursdays
12:00-3:00 pm
September 7, 12, 14, 19 26, & 28, 2017

Montclair Public Library
by Mary Kao
50 South Fullerton Avenue
Montclair, NJ 07042
Saturdays
12:15-3:45 pm
October 7, 14, 21, 28, & November 4, 2017

Getting to Know Us
Esther, LVA student

Esther’s story reads like something out of a modern day fairy tale – a youth spent in extremely hard labor until a kindly grandmother came to her rescue.

Raised in Ghana by a distant relative, Esther had to wash the family’s clothes, walk over a mile each way to fetch water, and carry a basket of food on her head after daily trips to the marketplace.

Every other day, she walked across very active train tracks surrounded by thick bushes to haul charcoal. “You walk 20 or 30 minutes before you see the village,” Esther remembered. “When you see the village, you know you are getting close to where you get the charcoal.” A dangerous journey for a 9-year old girl, Esther said, “When I think about it, God protected me.”

The work left no time for her to attend school. Some nights, Esther was just too tired to finish her chores; she was denied food because of her “disobedience.” Compassionate neighbors sneaked her something to eat.

Age 15 was a magical year for Esther. She was asked by her grandparents to live with them in Accra. The caring couple even sent her to school. But she left abruptly on her first day of class, vowing never to return, after some of the children laughed at her inability to spell a simple word. She turned her attention to cooking and soon became an integral part of her grandmother’s catering business.

More than a decade later, Esther was asked to join another benevolent relative - - an aunt living in the U.S. “My aunt saw something special in me and knew I would be okay,” Esther said.

Esther’s aunt did some research for opportunities for Esther to learn to read, which led them to Literacy Volunteers of America. Esther has been in the program for a little over a year, and together, she and her tutor, Jalisa, have made progress.

“I feel so happy in my heart that I can figure out new words and remember old ones,” Esther said. “My tutor always encourages me not to give up. She says you are more than you think you are.”

Literacy opens a wide door to life. Help us keep that door open with your donation!

Thanks in large part to you, we are able to aid hundreds of students each year. Please continue your efforts to improve the lives of others by giving the gift of literacy. You can contribute by mailing us a check or through our website @:

http://www.lvaep.org/donate.html

“Deportation a ‘Death Sentence’ to Adoptees After Lifetime in the U.S.” New York Times
By Choe Sang-Hun, July 2, 2017

SEOUL, South Korea — Phillip Clay was adopted at 8 into an American family in Philadelphia.

Twenty-nine years later, in 2012, after numerous arrests and a struggle with drug addiction, he was deported back to his birth country, South Korea. He could not speak the local language, did not know a single person and did not receive appropriate care for mental health problems, which included bipolar disorder and alcohol and substance abuse.

On May 21, Mr. Clay ended his life, jumping from the 14th floor of an apartment building north of Seoul. He was 42.

To advocates of the rights of international adoptees, the suicide was a wrenching reminder of a problem the United States urgently needed to address: adoptees from abroad who never obtained American citizenship. The Adoptee Rights Campaign, an advocacy group, estimates that 35,000 adult adoptees in the United States may lack citizenship, which was not granted automatically in the adoption process before 2000.

Mr. Clay is believed to be just one of dozens of people, legally adopted as children into American families, who either have been deported to the birth countries they left decades ago or face deportation after being convicted of crimes as adults. Some did not even know they were not American citizens until they were ordered to leave.

Adoptees from other countries, like Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil, have faced deportation. But the sheer number of children adopted from South Korea, once a leading source of children put up for adoption abroad, has made it the most visible example.

Reprinted from the New York Times. For full story, paste the following link into an Internet search: https://goo.gl/Wdw3hT

Student Resources

Learning a new culture is more than studying a language. Tutoring is more than learning techniques. Our ‘Resources’ page covers everything from legal matters, health care, & scholarships for immigrants, to professional development for tutors. Give us a look @:

http://www.lvaep.org/students.html

Getting to Know Us (cont.)
Tova Narrett, LVA tutor

Four decades working as a fashion designer left Tova Narrett with enviable skills, among them the ability to present complex ideas and directions to laborers, designers, and producers who didn’t always speak English. Tova taught herself to communicate ideas clearly by using pictures, diagrams, and visual cues - - skills she would later draw upon as a volunteer.

“After I retired, I was thinking about tutoring,” said Tova, a graduate of the Chicago Institute of Art who began designing clothes at age 11. “One day I Googled ‘Literacy tutoring in Essex County,’ and the first thing that came up was the LVA office at the Bloomfield Public Library. I couldn’t believe it was so close to my house.”

Tova remembers her first Basic Literacy student, a Nigerian woman who spoke English as her native language. The student quickly learned new words and together they used stories as a learning opportunity.

“I developed a fun technique of finding interesting short stories from the NPR Story Project and modifying them for her,” Tova said. “I like the story to be accomplished in one session so the student has a clear sense of a completed story. The students remember and enjoy the story more when they can grasp it all in one piece.”

With her second Basic Literacy student, a gentleman from Jamaica, Tova has had great success with a completely different approach. They use conversation as an opportunity to tackle the task of reading. She found him to be more a kinesthetic learner than an oral one. He successfully responds to picking up and arranging Scrabble tiles to form words and word families.

Tova is extremely creative and, when it comes to her students, is constantly on the lookout for new, interesting and fun techniques to use with them. “I only have two or three hours a week and I want their experiences to be memorable,” she said.