STUDENT STORIES: ANDREA & DIEGO
In 2019, Laura was seeking reading and reading comprehension tutoring for her daughter, Andrea. After hearing about Project 614 from one of our partnering organizations, they decided to enroll in our tutoring program. While Andrea viewed reading as a boring, even cumbersome, task, her perspective would change as she spent time honing her literacy skills at Project 614.
Over a period of many weeks, Andrea worked with a Project 614 tutor on reading, reading comprehension and phonics skills. We slowly saw Andrea shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”, a critical transition every child must make to embark on their journey through the education system. Andrea’s younger brother, Diego, could be seen and heard playing in the background of her Zoom sessions each week.
The following summer, Laura enrolled both Andrea and Diego (who was entering Kindergarten) as participants in our pilot literacy program, SRIP (Summer Reading Intervention Program). Laura voiced concerns about Diego’s progress in learning to identify and pronounce phonemes like ‘th’, ‘ch’, but was confident that SRIP would help him improve his communication skills.
Once enrolled in SRIP, Andrea and Diego remained enthusiastic about learning and making friends. They even earned second place for near-perfect attendance. The two enjoyed the program so much that they piqued the interest of their mother. Laura quickly signed up to serve as a volunteer for SRIP, creating an even better learning environment for our students!
Andrea with her SRIP Certificate of Completion
Andrea, a bright and curious student, loves reading and learning about animals, sea creatures and even mythical creatures like unicorns and mermaids!
Diego with his SRIP Certificate of Completion
Diego has also made significant progress in literacy, and is making his way through age-appropriate books like Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss!
Though reading is something many of us take for granted, our worlds are bigger and brighter because of our ability to access knowledge through the written word. Human beings use literacy to understand and interact with the world around them; and helping students develop their literacy skills is one of Project 614’s main goals.