“I have learned just how fortunate I have been in my life: to be born in the U.S., to have had so many opportunities to be educated, and to have so many freedoms—for an education, to have a career that I have loved, to have an equal partnership with my wonderful husband, to vote and participate in government, and to speak my mind when needed. I have also learned that I love to have a sense of purpose. Nothing makes me happier than when I see a student succeed.” -Carol Dussault, Literacy Council of Sheboygan County
“One of my first students … was incarcerated at the local jail and studying for his high school equivalency exam. He was really nailing the material, so I posed the question: What’s next? What do you want to do when you get released? He looked stunned, got a little teary, and then quietly replied, ‘No one has ever asked me that before.’” –Anne Larsen, Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley
“I do love it when I get an unexpected phone call in the middle of the day saying, ‘Miss Suz, I was just able to read the street sign for the address I’m looking for!’ This was from a truck driver doing daily deliveries for years by following GPS and laboriously matching letters on the invoice to the street signs. He and I both couldn’t have been prouder!” –Suz Hall, Neuhaus Education Center
While looking for inspiration for April’s newsletter, I came across these quotes from tutors who volunteer with other literacy councils across the U.S. For me, they sum up the work we do here at our own Literacy Council of Carroll County. I found them inspiring and hope you do, too.
There are just a few things to mention this month. First, ProLiteracy’s Teacher Training Plus is hosting a webinar titled “Building Conversation Skills: Strategies for Adult English Learners” on Tuesday, April 15 at 1 p.m. They are also having a webinar on April 8th called “Beyond Academics: Empowering Learners with Critical Social-Emotional Workplace Competencies” that may be of interest to you. Both webinars are free. You can access registration by visiting www.proliteracy.org and clicking on “Courses and Learning”. You’ll find that their website has a lot of free classes (“Teaching Math to Adults” caught my eye), and I hope you take advantage of what ProLiteracy offers.
I also wanted to let you know about Museums for All (www.museums4all.org). This is a great program that may benefit your students if they receive food assistance. With an EBT card and photo ID, through this program you can gain free or reduced entrance to over 1,400 museums in the U.S. Places like the B&O Museum in Baltimore and George Washington’s home at Mt. Vernon become much more accessible to families in a lower income bracket through this program, which is administered by the federally-funded (fingers crossed) Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Two dates to remember are Thursday, April 17 (10-noon) for our Donuts and Coffee Volunteer Appreciation Day and Thursday, May 22 (11-1) for our Tutor Talk. I will send out more information about the latter at another date, so be on the lookout for that.
Thank you to everyone who submitted their hours, etc. using the online tutoring report form. You will now also find next to that report form on our website a list of online resources for you to explore as you prepare your tutoring sessions. Please let us know of any other sites to add.
Lastly, I’d like to ask you again to consider visiting the Great Nonprofits website (www.greatnonprofits.org) to write a review for the Literacy Council of Carroll County. We still don’t have any submissions, and I know that many of you have great stories to share about your experiences as tutors. If we can get 10 or more reviews with 4- or 5-star ratings, we would earn the GreatNonprofits Top-Rated award for 2025, which could help the Literacy Council gain more attention for the work that goes on here- much of it done by you. Like the quotes at the beginning of this newsletter remind us, we’re privileged to be in a position where we can extend not only education but also a bit of kindness and care to those who need it most. It’s nice to share in that together with you and our students.
Happy spring, everyone.
