You'd be hard-pressed to find a member of the Literacy Source community who is not a big fan of libraries! April 3-9 is National Library Week, so this could be the perfect opportunity for you to peruse the incredible wealth of opportunities the library offers: from classes and talks to job search assistance, the library serves as a refuge and source of comfort for so many community members in so many places around the world - and Seattle is no exception. Read on to learn more about our English Circle partnership with the Seattle Public Library!
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“What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms.”
~Kobayashi Issa, Poems
Dear Literacy Source Community,
However you celebrate spring, whether it's walking amongst the cherry blossoms or sipping tea as you watch the sun peak through your window earlier and earlier with each passing day, we hope you feel the sense of renewal and wonder that we do. In fact, it's no coincidence that April is the National Month of Hope.
While we are acutely aware of the injustice and violence taking place around the world, we also take heart in the work that we do, and we thought what better way to celebrate hope than to share with you some of the work our students did to close out winter quarter!
Reading about life experiences reminds us all how, even amidst cultural differences, we are so very similar! The final projects for Lisa's 2-3 level ESOL class were to describe something students were preparing for. Some examples from students who felt comfortable sharing their work are:
- Suhua shares how she and her husband prepared for her road trip to Portland in her final project.
- Grasela is preparing to have her apartment fixed, something that would sound familiar for many of us!
- Hossein talks about the many steps - including, of course, a Covid test!! - for her trip back to Iran.
- Elfinesh talks about how she is preparing for a doctor's visit with her mom.
- Yordano shares the many delicious ingredients that will go into preparing her Easter meal.
The final project for the Ready To Work West project was to share a timeline of their lives, and there is no shortage of entrepreneurs in this class!
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Datsu's timeline includes important goals like going to college and one day opening her own day care.
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Tarfa shares her goals of working as a cashier to save money for her children and continuing to study English.
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Nghi's timeline highlights her financial goals and her dream of opening her own Vietnamese restaurant.
As you may have heard if you were able to attend our annual fundraising breakfast this year, our students are learning and growing in their confidence and ability in the safe spaces that are our classrooms. We are as always so impressed with their willingness to embrace hope and work hard to create new opportunities for themselves, their families, and their community.
In community,
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Cat Howell
Co-ED, Educational Director
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Shira Rosen
Co-ED, Managing Director
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Celebrating Library Partnership & Volunteer Spotlight: Cindy Riskin |
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In celebration of National Library Week (Apr 3-9), we’d love to highlight the great partnership we’ve had with the Seattle Public Library offering multi-level conversation classes for non-native English speakers since 2015. English Circle is a joint effort between Literacy Source and SPL, where participants discuss relevant topics in small groups with other learners as well as native English speakers to gain self-confidence and improve their speaking and listening skills. You can read more about the program in this Seattle Public Library article.
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We'd also love to introduce you to one of our volunteers in the English Circle class, Cindy Riskin. Cindy is a relatively new volunteer to the Seattle Public Library English Conversation Circle's, and the center Conversation classes. We are so grateful to her for enthusiastically jumping in to help in whatever manner she can. Last month, she took the initiative to create a great quiz and discussion questions for students in her class to acknowledge and celebrate Black History Month. The staff also enjoyed doing the activity in our staff meeting last month. Click here to test your knowledge of a few of the famous Black women in history.
We look forward to Cindy continuing with volunteering and engaging more in her role as a conversation partner.
Read on to learn more about Cindy, and you may notice some ESOL comprehension tricks in her writing!
Where are you originally from? If you’re not from Seattle what brought you here?
I'm originally from the New York City suburbs. The first time I visited the West Coast I was 17, living in my tent. I couldn’t believe how exquisite the mountains and water were. Years later I came back to Washington, and I couldn’t resist it! I quit my job in New York and moved here. That was 34 years ago.
[suburb: an area outside a city where people live, exquisite: extremely beautiful or perfect]
Please share something of your life so far and what you would like to do in the future.
My first big job was editing for Microsoft. From there, I spent the next few decades in high-tech and science publishing, newspaper reporting, and magazine writing. I also taught bicycling and gardening.
[decade: 10 years, high-tech: advanced technology, especially computers]
After I got a house, I became so interested in plants that I went back to school. In 2014, I got my master's degree in environmental horticulture. There I learned ecological restoration, in which you remove non-native weeds and replant with native plants. Native habitats benefit wildlife, the environment, and people. Note: That does not mean I have a beautiful yard!
[horticulture: the study of plants, restoration: making something good again, weed: a harmful plant, replant: to plant again with new plants]
In the future, I want to keep learning about language, nature, and the world. I’ve started learning Spanish again. I hope to travel extensively someday and live in another country, possibly in Southeast Asia or South America. Maybe I can teach English to pay my way.
You can read Cindy's full interview here.
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Americorps Goodbye: Sophia Harris |
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This month we wish Sophia Harris farewell after her year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA Outreach & Systems Coordinator. We are so grateful to Sophia for an amazing year; she has been integral to the success of some new processes and re-vamping of systems to support Literacy Source services and transitions. We have all enjoyed working with her and appreciated her calm, capable, and cheerful approach to every project she has worked on. She is leaving us in a better place than she found us for sure! We wish her all the best and good luck in her next endeavor of pursuing a PhD in sociology at UC of Boulder. We will miss her! |
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Sophia, left, with Rachel Jones, our Americorps ESOL program assistant |
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Literacy Source's 20th Annual Fundraising Breakfast |
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Dear Friends and Supporters of Literacy Source,
We are so grateful that so many of you were able to join us for our 20th annual fundraising breakfast! The event was a resounding success, and we hope you enjoyed hearing from our students about their experiences with Literacy Source, finding out more about our programs, visiting our virtual classrooms, and - of course! - hearing from our very own Nancy Pearl about some great new book recommendations.
As you all know, this event is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and your donations are what allow us to be able to serve our students. We are thrilled to announce that we've already raised $115,000 and the donations are still rolling in. But we do still have a ways to go towards our goals $165,000. If you'd like to contribute, it's not too late!
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We feel so lucky to have such an amazing community and we look forward continuing our journey together of creating new opportunities for our students, their families, and the community. |
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Program Update: Jail Programming Reinstated |
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We are excited to announce that after advocating with the DAJD Director's Office and County Commissioner, we have reinstated the contract with DAJD to provide tutoring support services at King County Correctional Facility and Maleng Regional Justice Center.
Although Covid has severely impacted programming and student access, we are hopefully that in the not-too-distant future we will be able to return to pre-Covid capacity.
Thank you so much for your interest in support for advocating for our students.
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Literacy Source is on the traditional lands of the Duwamish people, and we pay our respect to elders both past and present. To support the revival of Duwamish culture and the vitality of the Duwamish Tribe, please consider signing this petition to federally recognize them, or consider making a donation to Real Rent Duwamish.
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