Friday, May 25, 2012
Creating Hope, Sending Books to Thoreau
The community center was the brain child of a Juliana Ko, who moved to the small town to teach 8th grade math as part of a two-year service commitment. She spotted an abandoned building and went about securing it as a gathering place for local teens. A gathering place was desperately needed to combat the hopelessness that encouraged gang activity. Even worse, the town bore the weight of 15 teen suicides and 90 reported attempts.
Reader to Reader’s Kat Libby made copious notes on all that the library needs. Some of our work will be completing sets of books that are on the shelves. For example, they have only the second book I the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
We look forward to sending hundreds of books to bolster this small library. It’s small, but it’s so necessary, as it’s not the only access to books in the community, it’s all the access point for hope.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Gaining College Knowledge
The students also held an in-person Q&A with Melissa Aybar, an Amherst College student that was visiting as a part of the Reader to Reader team.
CollegeKnowledge is a comprehensive college counseling program that provides disadvantaged Native American students with the best and most accurate information about all forms of higher education and access to experts in the field. The heart of the program are videos produced by Dartmouth College’s Native American Program in partnership with Reader to Reader. After watching each video, the students do college access activities and skype with the students in the Native American Program.
Only 65% of Native students receive a high school diploma. Worse, only 10% will earn a college degree. This is less than half the national average. In the fall of 2012, Reader to Reader will provide an on-site coordinator on the Navajo Nation to facilitate all programs related to the goal of boosting Native American college attendance and graduation.
Empowering Navajo youth through education will develop a new generation of strong leaders who will improve the condition of their people.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
How They Have Grown!
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Assessing Need on the Navajo Nation
Over half the books in the library were donated by Reader to Reader and we look forward to donating over 1,500 more this coming July.
In addition, Reader to Reader has pledged 10 refurbished Dell computers to increase computer access at the school. The computers will be placed in the library and in classrooms. Among their uses will be for students participating in Reader to Reader’s online Navajo Mentoring Program and the CollegeKnowledge Program, a partnership between Reader to Reader and Dartmouth College.
Reader to Reader staff is spending ten days on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico doing library needs assessments at a host of schools and libraries.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Navajo Pine Students Awarded Laptops
The new HP laptops were presented by officials from Reader to Reader, a Massachusetts nonprofit literacy organization, that funds a mentoring program for Navajo Nation students and this spring donated 15,000 new children’s books to public schools in the Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools District.
Reader to Reader executive director David Mazor flew in over the weekend and Monday presented sophomores Jeff Chen and Roderica Sandoval with their laptops in recognition as the top students in mentoring program this year.
“I am incredibly proud of the hard work these students put in all year long,” Mazor said. “They read quite a large number of books and it was easy to pick them as the top students because their work was outstanding.”
Both students plan to participate in the Navajo Mentoring Program again next year.
“I can’t think of a better way to get students talking about books, using technology, and developing higher order thinking skills than Reader to Reader online mentoring program,” Navajo Pine’s librarian Carla Clauschee said.
About Reader to Reader
Based on the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Reader to Reader, Inc. www.readertoreader.org is a nonprofit organization that distributes books to schools and libraries in need. They have donated over 4 million books to schools and libraries across the United States and in 14 countries.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Progress in Kosovo
The project helps the Gjergj Fishta School create a library where students feel welcome and are inspired to read. The goal is to fill the library with books, and provide the students with computers and school supplies. A large amount of books and 8 computers were shipped to Kosovo last summer.
Monday, May 7, 2012
More Books for Ghana!
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