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

December 2016

Volume 4, Issue 12

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.

Perrine Robinson-Geller’s workshops are always popular with our tutors. Last month was no exception as eager tutors gathered to hear her tips on helping new readers.

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
                                           cbarcelos@lvaep.org
Russell Ben Ali          -Recruitment & Training Coordinator
                         rbenali@lvaep.org
Jorge Chavez                -Data Processing Coordinator
                                           jchavez@lvaep.org
Debbie Graham           -Education Coordinator
                                           dgraham@lvaep.org
Mary O’Connor          -Trainer & Tutor Support Specialist
                                           moconnor@lvaep.org
Marisol Ramirez          -Student Coordinator
                                           mramirez@lvaep.org

Greetings LVA Family.

It’s been quite a year. We battled our way to the library in the aftermath of a furious snowstorm, celebrated as four of our students took home NJALL writing contest awards, and struggled to meet the state’s demand that our students double the hours they spend learning English each month.

Thanks to all of you for helping us get through it. We wish you a safe, happy end of 2016 and a great new year.

. . .

Perrine Robinson-Geller of Literacy New Jersey gives fabulous tutor support workshops. Everyone knows it and, for that reason, the Boardroom at the Bloomfield Public Library was crowded last month with tutors anxious to hear her strategies and techniques for helping new readers. For info on this month’s workshop, “Shaping the Future of Adult Education in New Jersey,” with our director, Cristhian Barcelos, please see Page 2.
. . .

Following this year’s contentious presidential campaign, both the New Jersey Association for Lifelong Learning (NJALL), and the American Library Association (ALA), released statements last month that denounced acts like bigotry, racism, discrimination, sexism, and Islamophobia. You can read the full texts via:

NJALL: https://goo.gl/8tOLfH
ALA: https://goo.gl/jNmA7G

In the News

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

‘Newark Public Library Foundation awarded $1 million grant to support family literacy,’ Carnegie Foundation. goo.gl/CdSTAo

NJ school uses dog therapy to improve students’ English, NJ Advance Media, https://goo.gl/ibGFP8

No constitutional right to literacy, Michigan tells Detroit students, Detroit News, goo.gl/pxLkjS

‘6 Potential Brain Benefits of Bilingual Education,’ National Public Radio, https://goo.gl/KnVEkt

Fed up with her factory job, Kenny, an LVA student at a Passaic Public Library ESL class, immersed herself in English studies and found work as a substitute teacher.

Tutor Support Workshops

“Shaping the Future of Adult Education
in New Jersey,”
with Cristhian Barcelos
Bloomfield Public Library
90 Broad Street, 2nd fl Boardroom
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Thursday, December 15, 2016
1:00-2:30 pm

Tutor Training Workshops

Montclair Public Library
50 S. Fullerton Ave
Literacy Room
Montclair, NJ 07042
Saturdays, January 28-February 25, 2017
12:15-3:45 pm

Belleville Public Library
221 Washington Ave
Teen Center
Belleville, NJ 07109
Tuesdays and Thursdays,
March 7-23, 2017
12:00-3:00 pm

Getting to Know Us
Kenny, LVA student

Nearly two million highly-skilled immigrants with college degrees earned overseas are either unemployed or working jobs that make little use of their knowledge and skills, according to a recent study.

It’s a group that Kenny wanted no part in.

So the Passaic mother of three, a former bank worker who holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Dominican Republic, abruptly quit her factory job and immersed herself in English classes and self-study. And she applied for work as a public school substitute teacher, knowing that her language skills needed to improve.

“I decided to risk it because I needed work,” said Kenny, an LVA student at a Passaic Public Library ESL class. “I worked in a factory but it was not for me. It’s just a little money and a lot of time away from my daughters.”

She knew it was a gamble. Between the costs of raising three girls, ages 13, 5 and 4, her husband’s frequent travel to the Dominican Republic where he runs a business, and fees to have her educational transcripts evaluated in the U.S., the family had expenses.

But, nine months later, as schools prepped to open in September, Kenny received a call from the Passaic Board of Education, where she’d applied for a job as a substitute. How soon could she start, they wanted to know.

Often the biggest obstacle to employment for recent immigrants is English, according to Immigrant Professional Integration, or IMPRINT, a coalition of organizations active in the field of skilled immigrant integration. “Across the board, stronger English language skills were correlated with virtually every possible measure of immigrant economic success,” IMPRINT said in a recent study.

Kenny knew her English wasn’t perfect “but I decided to risk it,” she said. She now averages four days per week in Passaic schools, working as a substitute or assistant teacher in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st grade classes. “I learned a lot here,” she said of her ESL class. “My teachers have been excellent. The program has been wonderful.”

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 through our website – http://www.lvaep.org/donate.html or by mailing us a check.

Larry Reilly is passionate about opera and tutoring. He often manages to work the musical art form into his tutoring sessions with students.

“Now, I can read bigger words. ... I can pick up a menu in a restaurant and read it."
USA Today Network/Springfield News-Leader, Dec. 8, 2016

Buying a can of green beans at the grocery store has always been a challenge for 41-year-old Ryan Rounsavill.

“I’d find the aisle of canned goods, but then I had to search the cans for pictures and clues,” he said.

Assembling cabinets at the plant where he worked, Rounsavill relied solely on diagrams. And following someone’s driving directions almost always got him lost.

He also sees letters and numbers reversed; a sign at the gas station reading $1.53 per gallon may appear to him as $3.15. “I knew my letters. I knew the alphabet. I could read some two-letter and three-letter words like ‘cat’ or ‘dog.’ But that’s it,” he said.

Rounsavill recalls a teacher pulling him out of his second grade classroom and telling him he’d be switching schools. He needed a special education class, and his school’s classes were full.

He was shuffled to several different schools, he said, even though his parents remained in the same house. His childhood was one of chronic loneliness. And despite the fact he could barely claim a first-grade reading level, Ryan Rounsavill was awarded a high school diploma alongside his peers.

“Because I was in special classes, I did not take English classes. I took no history. No science. [In high school,] they sent me to shop classes and I was in work programs for the other half of the day.”

Reprinted from USA Today/Springfield News-Leader. For full story, copy and paste the following link into an internet search:
https://goo.gl/VBRZkC

Getting to Know Us (cont.)
Larry Reilly, LVA tutor

Larry Reilly’s face lights up when he talks about libretto and literacy. An avid opera fan, Larry has been a subscriber to the Metropolitan Opera for over 30 years. He sometimes incorporates opera into his tutoring sessions with his LVA students. Larry not only teaches ESOL, but cultural literacy as well. He prepares his students well to fit into life in the U.S.

Larry is a quiet presence at the Bloomfield Library. He diligently walks in with his brief case, flashes a friendly smile, and then quickly gets down to business with his student whom he tutors 16 hours per month. They are a well-matched pair. Larry is a giving tutor and his student is a willing learner.

After retiring from his job of 40 years as a real estate attorney, Larry joined the ranks of LVA. “I have a good friend who had been teaching English and I was very impressed with what he did. I saw your ad in a magazine and I picked up the phone and called the office,” Larry said. That was two years ago. He has faithfully volunteered ever since.

Reflecting on his students, Larry said, “I enjoy seeing people develop in their reading and comprehension. They all have a wonderful attitude and are very appreciative of what we are doing and the time we spend together.”

“Humanitarian” adequately describes Larry. He is active on the board of COPE (Counseling, Outreach, Prevention, and Education) in Montclair, which provides counseling for young adults with substance abuse and mental health issues. Currently Larry is working with them on developing a strategic plan as to how they can better serve their clients.

Another one of this compassionate tutor’s pet projects is the Job Haines Home, an assisted living, nursing home and rehab in Bloomfield. “Job Haines is also expanding and growing. Our challenge is to discover what will be needed in the future,” Larry said.

A self-described “inveterate reader,” Larry is drawn toward biographies of public-spirited individuals. He enjoys reading books by the Pulitzer Prize winning historians David McCullough and Robert Cairo. For Larry’s “light” reading, this former history major enjoys James Joyce’s Ulysses. Last year, his wife took him to Dublin, Ireland, to attend Bloomsday, a celebration of Joyce’s life.

Most importantly for the LVA community, he brings all of these interests and enthusiasm to enrich the learning experience of his students. Not only does he instruct them in English but he also adds richness to what they are learning—a special gift no matter how you look at it.