May 2018
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Volume 6, Issue 5
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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.
Ellen Rooney Martin is our new coordinator for recruitment and training. Ellen is a former journalist and a frequent contributor to The Insider.
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 Jorge Chavez -Data Processing Coordinator jchavez@lvaep.org Debbie Graham -Education Coordinator dgraham@lvaep.org Ellen Rooney Martin -Recruitment & Training Coordinator emartin@lvaep.org Mary O’Connor -Trainer & Tutor Support Specialist moconnor@lvaep.org Marisol Ramirez -Student Coordinator mramirez@lvaep.org |
Greetings LVA Family,
We are both pleased and, frankly, humbled by the recognition and awards received over the past month by Literacy New Jersey and the New Jersey Association for Lifelong Learning (NJALL). At its annual conference last month, Literacy New Jersey granted LVA Essex & Passaic Counties the Alice M. Leppert Award for Outstanding Affiliate for our Student ID and Resources Program, which is described in greater detail on Page 4 of this newsletter. NJALL recognized Mary Kao, an LVA tutor, trainer, and workshop presenter, as Teacher of the Year, at the organization’s annual conference last week. In addition, our students fared well in the NJALL Learner Writing Contest and will see their work published next year in the organization’s magazine. You can see photos of the award winners, and descriptions of their prizes, on Page 5. Alas, it is with sadness that we say goodbye to our colleague, Russell Ben Ali, coordinator of our recruitment and training program since July 2013. Russell is retiring as a staffer but will remain a volunteer and a coordinator for LVA’s English-Spanish Language Exchange, our bilingual conversation group. At the same time, it is a privilege to welcome Ellen Rooney Martin to our staff as the new recruitment and training coordinator. Ellen is a volunteer tutor and, in recent months, a frequent contributor to The Insider. She has a journalism background and brings her infectious smile and warm personality to our office. The tutor support group will meet Tuesday, May 22nd, 12:30-2:00 pm, at Park United Methodist Church, 12 Park St, in Bloomfield. In the News
To view the following stories, copy and paste the highlighted website into an internet search bar.
‘Illiteracy often unseen, very real problem, Greater Cleveland groups say,’ The News-Herald, https://bit.ly/2KVM1YP ‘Everyday objects pose a daunting challenge for illiterate adults in Pearson’s latest ‘Project Literacy’ Campaign,’ Ad Age, https://bit.ly/2G8Tlwk ‘Why is New York condoning illiteracy?’ Opinion Section, New York Times Opinion Section, https://nyti.ms/2GUDciz |
You can find more than English lessons at the local library. LVA students Seung Hui (“Erin”) and Gurpreet found friendship and the chance to become published authors.
Tutor Support Workshop
"Teaching Vocabulary with Pictures," with Mary Kao
Bloomfield Public Library 90 Broad Street, 2nd Floor Boardroom Bloomfield, NJ 07003 Tuesday, June 5, 2018, 1:00-2:30 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 -TBD 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 |
Getting to Know Us
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“Casting aside shame and stigma, adults tackle struggle with illiteracy.”
Our series "Take A Number" looks at problems around the world — and the people trying to solve them — through the lens of a single number.
At the tiny public library in Winterport, Maine, 43-year-old Robert Hartmann bends over The Little Engine That Could and slowly sounds out the first line. "Ch-chug, right?" he asks his volunteer tutor, Sandy DeLuck. "Yup," she encourages him. He presses on: "Puh-puff ... puff ... puff. Ding ... ding-dong?" Hartmann is burly, with five facial piercings, his arms inked with tattoos. This is his second session with DeLuck. He reads at about a first-grade level. He is one of the 35 million U.S. adults whose reading skills are below a fourth-grade level. Thirty-five million — or 1 in 6 U.S. adults. Nationwide, adult illiteracy has proved an intractable problem, linked to stubborn societal issues such as poverty and failing schools. In fact, US adult literacy rates are no better than they were 25 years ago. In Maine, the small nonprofit Literacy Volunteers of Bangor is among the programs trying to chip away at that daunting statistic by helping people like Hartmann improve their literacy — and, eventually, their lives. Reprinted from The Telegraph (London). For full story, paste the following link into an Internet search: https://n.pr/2I6DP7b 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
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2018 Alice M. Leppert Award for Outstanding Affiliate Achievement
Literacy New Jersey
Our “Student ID and Resources Program," is a two-part project, the first of which aims to provide each student with photo identification. Our photo ID card, which comes with the student’s name and home address embossed on the front, and the name of his or her tutor, and day, time, and library of their meeting affixed to the back with a sticker, will be issued to every student in our tutoring program by the end of July 2018. The cards are similar to the municipal IDs granted to immigrants in about a dozen New Jersey municipalities, regardless of immigration status, and may give some students their first identification card in the U.S.
The second part of the project, our Resources program, identifies institutions around the state where students can find everything from low cost public health, dental, eye care, and mental health clinics to food pantries, legal immigration services, transportation, scholarships, education and housing help. The information, which is contained on our web pages - http://www.lvaep.org/students.html - is available in 103 language.
In consideration of the pilot project, which was developed by our executive director, Cristhian Barcelos, Literacy New Jersey presented LVA Essex & Passaic with the 2018 Alice M. Leppert Award for Outstanding Affiliate Achievement at Literacy NJ’s annual conference at The College of New Jersey on April 21, 2018. LVA was fortunate enough to receive the award at least twice before – in 2015 and 1993.
The second part of the project, our Resources program, identifies institutions around the state where students can find everything from low cost public health, dental, eye care, and mental health clinics to food pantries, legal immigration services, transportation, scholarships, education and housing help. The information, which is contained on our web pages - http://www.lvaep.org/students.html - is available in 103 language.
In consideration of the pilot project, which was developed by our executive director, Cristhian Barcelos, Literacy New Jersey presented LVA Essex & Passaic with the 2018 Alice M. Leppert Award for Outstanding Affiliate Achievement at Literacy NJ’s annual conference at The College of New Jersey on April 21, 2018. LVA was fortunate enough to receive the award at least twice before – in 2015 and 1993.
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New Jersey Association of Lifelong Learning
Teacher of the Year
The NJALL Teacher of the Year award went to our own Mary Kao, an LVA tutor for 17 years, as well as a trainer, a workshop presenter and, at times, a recruiter. She is one of our longest serving tutors and, at age 75, displays the enthusiasm of a rookie teacher. Mary learned the importance of literacy as a child. Her mother could speak four languages but couldn’t read or write in any because she was taken out of school at an early age by a father who believed that girls should learn to cook, sew, and maintain a household, rather than attend school.
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New Jersey Association of Lifelong Learning
Learner Writing Contest 2017
Winners of NJALL’s Learner Writing Contest 2017 were announced at the organization’s annual ceremony on May 11, 2018. The contest comes with cash prizes and the opportunity to be published in the NJALL annual literary magazine, “Insight.” The following LVA Essex & Passaic Counties students were recognized in the contest for these works:
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A painful early marriage behind her, Ligia writes about moving to the United States with her young son in “Remembrance of Yesterday.” Visiting a local mall a few days after her arrival, she ran into an old friend, with the happiest possible outcome including a renewed friendship and an eventual marriage to the friend’s brother. She won a special mention in the memoir category.
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Ligia Avendano Alverez
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Gurpreet Bhatia
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Gurpreet remembers her mother praying at the shocking attack on Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban in 2012. It caused her to wonder what was wrong with educating young girls and allowing them to watch tv and listen to music. “A Young Living Legend,” by Gurpreet won first place non-fiction.
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One night, Karima woke up to silence at 1 a.m., while her husband slept peacefully beside her. She was consumed with loneliness. She longed to share a cup of coffee with her parents every evening, missed her friends and the life she knew in Morocco. Everything was new, but the stirring of her unborn baby restores her hope in “A Little Star,” which won special mention-memoir.
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Karima Ejjoulali
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Clifford Henry
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A boy dreams of being Superman and growing up to be a doctor, but first wants to join the football team in Clifford’s story “The Little Superman.” There are some tense moments in this tale of love and determination as a father and coach worry about the boy after practice. The story won first place-fiction.
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Every kid can remember something their mother said over and over, many might recall: Did you do your homework? Seung remembers hearing “Seung Hui, come here and eat this!” She wrote beautifully about food, sacrifice and love in her memoir: “Yes, I’d love to Have Some More, Mom” which was awarded first place.
Getting a book receipt at the library detailing her savings of $20 that day borrowing books, moved Seung thinking about the power of books in her life in “How I Became A Library Enthusiast.”. With her library card in hand, she has access to a world of books, which she wrote about and won second-place for non-fiction. |
Seung Hui Kim
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Damian Wilson
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Wondering what it would be like to be sixteen again, Damian wrote “Sixteen” about growing up in Jamaica and not going to a regular high school. Instead she attended a job training center and went to work as a babysitter. She wrote about being sixteen again as an American high school student in this charming memoir that won an special mention in the memoir category.
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