This is the fourth installment in a five-part series featuring community outreach efforts between Duke and Durham. Each installment is comprised of two articles: The first focuses on Duke's efforts and the second analyzes the benefits experienced by the community. Tomorrow's installment will examine the Trinity Park Association.
One out of every five working Americans reads at or below the fifth-grade level. While such a statistic may startle students in higher education, the fact is nonetheless real and often sobering.
"Partnership for Literacy," a Duke volunteer program founded in 1991, attempts to combat the reality of the statistic by pairing University employees with student tutors who teach them primarily reading and writing skills at several different levels. The program affords these employees a one-on-one opportunity to pursue their interests and reach their goals.
Tutors and employees are involved "in an interactive process of mutual growth," said Elaine Madison, director of the Community Service Center. The connection between employees and their tutors-all of whom are either volunteer or work-study students-begins with the aid of the Durham County Literacy Council-an organization that trains students in eight-hour training sessions to become skilled tutors.
Led by DCLC's Educational Coordinator Kathy Sikes, these crash courses give students tips for teaching reading and writing skills, developing lesson plans and evaluating cooperative learning. "Our general mission is to provide literacy services for any individual in Durham county... that's the same goal we have at Duke," she said.
Once University students become tutors, the pairing process begins, much of which depends on the class schedule and availability of tutors.
The content of the tutoring sessions depends largely on those areas that the employees want to study, and the range of subjects on which tutors can work with the employees runs the gamut. "[Partnership for Literacy] is very much a learner-centered program... determined by the employee with the help of the student," Madison explained. "Reading and writing, learning to balance checkbooks, [helping them] handle reading material.... It is quite varied as to what can go into a tutoring session."
Trinity junior Stephen Katz, a PFL tutor, works with an employee originally from Ethiopia to improve his reading and writing skills; the employee must learn to read and write more fluently to earn his U.S. citizenship. "In that capacity, just seeing progress taking place is definitely encouraging," Katz said. "PFL provides resources and opportunities for us to give to others what we have been fortunate to receive ourselves."
The PFL mission statement describes the success that many employees who have gone through the program have achieved: Some have earned high school degrees, others have read their first novels and many have improved their job performance.
But the learning part of the program is not restricted to a one-way funnel of information from students to employees; nor is it confined to practical skills.
"We have learned just as much from them as they have learned from us," said Trinity sophomore Chris Bennett, co-chair of PFL. And while student tutors clearly help employees accomplish the goals they set for themselves, the learning experience is equally special for the student tutors. Trinity sophomore Sara Osterling, a co-chair of PFL and a second-year tutor, said the program helps to bridge the gap between the very different worlds of students and employees.
"We forget that there is a world outside [of Duke].... I sit down with this man who has a totally different lifestyle than I do, yet we can connect in many ways."
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