Words to Live By, by Lindsay McHolme

Lindsay McHolme is the Community Literacy Liaison at the Literacy Center of West Michigan.  Over the past few years, she has been involved in improving literacy in the community as a Volunteer Tutor and Literacy Coordinator for the Literacy Center's Adult Tutoring Program.
 
As Community Literacy Liaison at the Literacy Center of West Michigan, Lindsay McHolme is involved in affecting improved literacy in Grand Rapids.  She writes about organizations that provide literacy in the community.

Vaccination, polio, typhoid, nosebleed -- four words most of us don't even remember learning. For recent immigrants like Tesheme Sium, these words are indispensable.

"We need to find out if you have had a Health Department check-up," says Pablo Gonzalez, Sium's literacy tutor, making a note in his smart phone.

Gonzalez -- one of 332 Literacy Center volunteer tutors matched with students last year -- is helping Sium study for his upcoming literacy assessment. Together, they review a medical form, carefully defining each new vocabulary word.

Seven months ago, Sium emigrated here from Eritrea through Lutheran Refugee Services. He enrolled in the Adult Tutoring Program soon after. Though he had learned a little bit of English in school, the majority of his classes were in Tigrinya, his first language.

Volunteer tutors like Gonzalez meet with students for two hours every week in a public location to help students reach their English reading and writing goals through life skills texts.

When Sium started the Adult Tutoring Program, his goals were to improve his basic conversation skills enough to enter the workforce, obtain a driver's license and get a GED. After just six months of tutoring with Gonzalez, Sium has transitioned to full-time employment, gotten his temporary driver's license and picked up many other life skills.

"He is now using a computer and has online banking," Gonzalez says.

"Pablo has done an excellent job preparing him for the workforce in the United States," says Angela Steele, Adult Tutoring Program director.

Sium -- "a beginning English Language Learner," according to Steele -- meets with Gonzalez once a week at Michigan Works! to improve his résumé. He also attends weekly study sessions at Yankee Clipper Library to learn skills like making appointments, reading clocks, writing checks, answering questions and completing medical forms -- all skills fluent English speakers usually take for granted.

"Last year, we impacted 758 adults and family members," says Steele about the program.

She notes that 30 percent of 332 students matched with a tutor last year entered the program with a GED, high school diploma or some college. Although formally educated, these students enrolled at or below a 9th grade reading level.

The Adult Tutoring Program is all about life skills, so it only makes sense that it would be flexible enough to accommodate students' increasingly demanding work, school and family schedules.

This is a real benefit for students like Sium, whose schedules just keep getting more packed. Since he started the program, Sium has transitioned from temporary to full-time work at Empire Co. Inc. in Zeeland, where he reads and identifies wood pieces by name, then sorts and stores them. Sium is also working on other goals like earning his driver's license and improving his computer literacy skills in his free time.

Sium's success shows how customized instruction and a personal advocate like Gonzalez can truly transform a person's life. Steele sums it up nicely, saying simply:

"We meet adults where they are and help them get one step closer to where they want to be."