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

August 2018

Volume 6, 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.

We’re busy planning a tutor appreciation get together in early October at the Bloomfield Public Library. Keep an eye out for details.

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]
Jorge Chavez               -Data Processing Coordinator
                                           [email protected]
Debbie Graham           -Education Coordinator
                                           [email protected]
Ellen Rooney Martin -Recruitment & Training Coordinator
                         [email protected]
Mary O’Connor          -Trainer & Tutor Support Specialist
                                           [email protected]
Marisol Ramirez          -Student Coordinator
                                           [email protected]

Greetings LVA Family,

Week in and week out our tutors and students work hard together toward the goal of literacy and we appreciate the time and energy you give each other. Not surprisingly, the learning goes beyond the lessons too.

One student worried Americans would not be friendly until she started with LVA and met her tutors. And a tutor mentioned how surprising it was to learn how students cope with in their daily lives when they don’t know English.

Sometimes it is more than the lesson being shared each week as we learn more about the people and world around us. Thank you for your time and commitment to LVA.

That brings to mind our upcoming Tutor Support Workshop, “Using Mindfulness in Tutoring,” with Matt Ford. Learn techniques that can help students overcome anxiety about learning and be present. Mark your calendars for Monday, September 10, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

In this issue of the Insider, we introduce you to LVA student Ana, whose whole world opened up with the help of her tutor. Ana has a visual impairment and now has access to a magnifying monitor in the Bloomfield Public Library and at home and lights up with joy talking about it.

We also spotlight LVA Dan Barenholtz who speaks multiple languages and says learning a second language could go a long way towards peace in the world. Dan travels, works as a professional massage therapist and tutors students in foreign languages.

In the News

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

‘ESOL students deliver geography education to their peers,’ FEWeek, https://bit.ly/2OMkwmc

‘Volunteer inspires teachers to offer adult literacy classes in Nigeria,’ CGTN.com, https://bit.ly/2MkmyZd

‘Adult literacy Xprize down to five finalists,” Language Magazine https://bit.ly/2LXEooH

‘From Trip Advisor, a program to help refugees get to know the U.S.,’ The New York Times https://nyti.ms/2O0uq2v

Ana has a visual impairment, and her enthusiasm to learn English soared with the help of a magnifying monitor during her lessons and at home.

Tutor Support Workshops

“Using Mindfulness in Tutoring,” with Matt Ford
Bloomfield Public Library
90 Broad St., 2nd Floor Boardroom
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Monday, September 10, 2018, 1:00 -3:00 pm

Tutor Training Workshops

Montclair Public Library -by Mary Kao
50 South Fullerton Avenue
Montclair, NJ 07042
Saturdays, 12:15-3:45 pm
September 8, 15, 22, 29, & October 6, 2018

Bloomfield Public Library -by Sable Lomax
90 Broad Street, 2nd Floor Boardroom
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:00- 3:00 pm
October 2, 4, 9, 11, 16, & 18, 2018

West Orange Public Library -by Mary Kao
46 Mount Pleasant Avenue
West Orange, NJ 07052
Wednesday 6:00 - 9:00 pm
October 10, 17, 24, 31, November 7, & 14, 2018

Hilton Branch, Maplewood Library -by Mary O'Connor
1688 Springfield Avenue
Maplewood, NJ 07040
Mondays and Wednesdays 1:00-4:00 pm
October 17, 22, 24, 29, 31 & Nov. 5, 2018

Getting to Know Us
Ana, LVA student
by Ellen Martin

Before finding LVA, Ana was struggling.

Her life was full, she gardened and occasionally played the penny slots in Atlantic City, but she was a caregiver for her grandsons who, along with their mother, spoke English and Ana didn’t.

She knew a lot of English, but wanted to learn to speak properly.

The El Salvador native, also has a visual impairment which makes it hard to read anything from a magazine to a prescription. She became depressed.

Her husband was taking English and she wanted to learn too. He saw a notice for LVA at his work, and suggested Ana try to learn English through LVA. It turns out through LVA, Ana learns English and has a special device to help her read.

Now Ana, dressed in bright colors, lights up when talking about it.

“I’m so happy now,” Ana said with a broad smile.

But getting to that point took time and energy. Her tutor, Nancy Pisciotta, worked with Ana for a while before learning about a magnifier from a former tutor with a visual impairment. The desktop sized device enlarges text and projects it on a monitor.

Ana, got help from Nancy and her own son to apply for a similar home device from the New Jersey Department of Human Services Commission for the Blind. Ana waited a long time on the waiting list for her needs to be assessed before getting the device for her home. “I am so thankful for her,” Ana said of Nancy.

She lives with her extended family and can now read a doctor’s prescription and can work on her ESL homework while keeping an eye on her grandchildren. “They never stop,” she’s says with affection.

Ana is an avid gardener, a hobby she loves, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapenos, and broccoli for fresh salad. “I like to eat fresh food from the garden,” she said. For fun she likes to walk the boardwalk and play the penny slots in Atlantic City.

Ana has lived in the U.S. for thirty years and is a U.S. citizen, who votes with pride and says other should too.

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

“From Literacy to Diversity, Ideas Bloom at Romance Writers Conference”
The Denver Post
By Chaney Skilling, July 21, 2018

Clutching the book in one hand and her phone in the other, a fan approached author Alyssa Cole’s table at the Romance Writers of America literacy signing with a giddy look on her face.

“Can you sign this for me?” she asked. “My friend’s in the Netherlands right now, and she couldn’t make it.” Immediately behind her, a book blogger eagerly awaited her turn. “This is my first stalker stop,” she joked as Cole signed her book.

Saturday afternoon the Romance Writers of America association closed out its annual conference with the 28th annual Readers for Life book signing at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Denver. Hosting more than 300 authors and 100 percent donated books, the public signing raised funds for the national nonprofit ProLiteracy and Colorado nonprofit Literacy Coalition of Colorado, each of whom promote and support adult literacy education.

To date, the event has donated more than $1 million to ProLiteracy and local literacy organizations. In 2017 the signing raised $45,000 to help supply reading materials, fund adult literacy classes and provide training for reading tutors. “What I love about the literacy signing is the positive vibes,” newly published author and Romance Writers of America board member Priscilla Oliveras said. “Whether you’re a New York Times best seller with 60 books or a debut author, there’s room for you.”

The conference brings together a combined 2,000 romance authors, agents and publishers for panel discussions, networking and a love of the craft. This year’s theme: Rethink. Revitalize. Renew.

Reprinted from The Denver Post. For full story, paste the following link into an Internet search: https://dpo.st/2nf1SXN

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
Dan Barenholtz, LVA tutor
by Ellen Martin

If LVA tutor Dan Barenholtz’s heart was any more open, it would be turned inside out.

He leans out into the world, trying understand new cultures, new languages, meet new people and do his part to make less fortunate empowered.

“Language is intrinsically related to culture,” Dan said. “It is like a keyhole in the door. It opens me up to different ways of thinking and being.”

Dan was born in Brooklyn Heights and moved to Montclair when he was three-years-old, also the age he learned to read. In Montclair, he started learning Latin and took out a book on Swahili in first grade, already leaning into the world. He stayed in Montclair’s public schools until 7th grade.

Then his adventures really began. When China first opened its doors in 1982 to Americans, Dan went on a tour to China, Japan and Hong Kong when he was 12-years-old. Along the way, he struck up a conversation with an elderly Japanese man who taught Dan some Japanese. “I almost missed my flight because of that,” he remembered.

Dan went to Montclair Kimberly Academy, a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, and Dublin School in New Hampshire before graduating from Montclair High School. Dan then graduated from Bloomfield College with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology, magna cum laude.

Now Dan speaks French and Spanish and compares the same nouns in English. “In English we don’t think in terms of masculine nouns and feminine nouns,” he said. “These are slightly different nuanced ways of thinking.” Dan studied Russian in 2007.

His sense of adventure includes the United States too. Dan has driven across the country and back twice and loves the area near the New Mexico and Arizona border, where he met a French couple and was able to use his French.

“If we mandated at least one or two foreign languages in the United States, it would go a long way toward world peace,” Dan said.

With his students, Dan draws on common sense to judge their level of English.