Literacy Council of Union County
with assistance from
South Piedmont Community College
 4209 Old Charlotte Hwy., Monroe, NC 28110   
Ph: 704-226-1425

Tutor Profiles - Page 2

Norma Griffin

After rheumatoid arthritis forced Norma Griffin's retirement in 1996, she found volunteer opportunities to fill her time. However, she had long thought she would like to teach an adult to read. She knew the need was great and liked the idea of using her teaching skills to do something for others.

Since taking the Literacy Council's Laubach tutor training workshop two years ago, Griffin has worked with two students. The first went on to earn a GED, a high school equivalency diploma. The second has been studying with Griffin for almost 18 months and is now in his third book. When talking about her experiences teaching these two adults, Griffin's enthusiasm for teaching and learning, as well as her love for her students, overflows.

Indeed, besides patience, Griffin believes the most important qualification for teaching an adult to read is a love for people. She talks of wanting to give someone a gift--something that can't be bought and wrapped in a pretty package--that comes from the heart. "People who can't read miss so much," she says. Griffin believes that most people want to do something for others and speaks of her tutoring experience as being good therapy for her too.

To Griffin the benefits she gets from tutoring are many. Seeing her student's progress is as exciting for her as it is for him, and his appreciation to her for giving him new skills is just a bonus. In speaking of his tutor, her student says he "wouldn't take anything for her." Griffin also gets a thrill from seeing how his confidence has grown since they began working together. He now reads the newspaper and takes a book to work to read on his lunch hour. What a difference one person can make in the life of another!

Nell McLeod

It was about eight years ago that Elma Jean Beatty, then Director of Basic Skills at Union Technical Education Center (UTEC), introduced Nell McLeod to the Laubach method for teaching adults to read. McLeod had long thought that when she retired she would like to teach an adult to read. She knew the need was there, and she wanted to do what she could to meet that need.

McLeod volunteered at UTEC in various capacities for about five years. In January 1996, she had the opportunity to take a Laubach tutor training workshop, and since then she has helped half a dozen adults learn to read or improve their basic reading skills. Currently tutoring two students in separate sessions, McLeod says she is motivated by the hope that she is making a difference in someone's life.

When asked what is required to be a tutor, McLeod mentioned desire, empathy, and a non-judgmental attitude. She also stresses that, as with most ventures, you learn as you go.

Would she recommend tutoring an adult to others? "Yes!" McLeod replied. She added, "You don't need to be a teacher to teach adults to read with this method. Anyone who has the Laubach training can do it."

Says Literacy Director, Linda Moyer, "Nell is the consummate volunteer. She does her best to meet the needs of others whether that means taking on an additional student at the Council's request or changing her tutoring schedule to accommodate the needs of one of her students. She is a firm believer in our program and puts forth every effort to help the Literacy Council grow and move in the right direction. She and the other tutor volunteers like her have made our program what it is today."

Jeanette Morrow

In June 1998, Jeanette Morrow attended a nine-hour Laubach tutor training workshop conducted by the Literacy Council of Union County. Her primary motivation was that she has always liked to help people, and beyond that she felt that teaching someone to read or to speak English for the first time was something she could do. She also had been moved by the literacy needs she saw, especially among the immigrant population. Her belief is that if people came here trying to better themselves and make a better life for their families, she should help as best she could.

Morrow is certainly not new to giving of herself. Since 1988 she has been a volunteer with the Department of Social Services, helping out with the Christmas Bureau, and distributing surplus commodities when they are made available to people in need.

Since she began tutoring 15 months ago, Morrow has tutored eight students, all Hispanic. Currently she is tutoring one student at a work site through the Council's United Way Focus Area grant. However, that doesn't mean she has forgotten her other students. Clearly, they all hold a special place in her heart. "I've liked my students so much," she says. "All of them have been really great."

When asked why she thought others should tutor, Morrow spoke about the great need for tutors as well as the self-satisfaction a tutor receives from working one-on-one with a student. She believes the biggest requirement for being a tutor is patience. Beyond that she says it helps if you get a thrill from seeing someone learn and seeing the difference you can make in someone's life.

Jim Moyer

As a tutor, Jim Moyer knows that the learning goes both ways. He has found that he learns just as much as his students. My students life experiences have all been much different from mine, so Ive learned a lot.

Jim became a tutor almost four years ago when he found himself with a little extra time and wanted to help somebody in a way hed never helped anyone before. He also knew that tutors were needed to make the Literacy Council successful.

An especially rewarding experience for Jim was the time his current student got all the answers correct on the Skill Book 1 checkup. But all tutors know that you must face challenges to get to the reward.

Jims biggest challenge as a tutor is to try to get his 40-something student to learn things quickly-things we as tutors often take for granted. We had covered possessives several times, but the Skill Book 2 checkup showed he still needed work, recalls Jim.Ive had several experiences that taught me how it feels to be nearly illiterate. Traveling in Italy where all the signs are in a language I can barely read made me feel completely lost. So I understand the importance of reading a language

Jim stresses that you dont have to be a teacher to teach someone to read. If you can read the instructions in the materials, you can teach someone to improve their reading, he explains. When he isnt tutoring, Jim stays busy as a founding member of Reflection Big Band, playing the saxophone and clarinet. He also enjoys collecting 1950s and 1960s rock-and-roll records, volunteering at Loaves and Fishes, and teaching adult Sunday School.

Pam Nash



Weekdays Pam Nash works as a scheduler at Pilgrim's Pride (formerly Wampler) in Marshville. Besides teaching Sunday School and giving piano lessons, she has no formal teaching background. Still, three years ago Pam decided to take the Literacy Council's tutor training workshop because she realized what a handicap it must be for someone who couldn't read; moreover, she believed she could teach someone to read.

Since that time, Pam has worked with a Colombian woman whose initial goal was to improve her spelling and writing. Over the years, this goal has evolved into understanding higher elements of grammar including the tricky areas of subject/verb agreement and verb conjugation, topics for which Pam admits she doesn't always have ready answers.

Still, the student's excitement for what she is learning keeps Pam going. "My student wants to learn so badly and won't give up," she says. She also sees how her student's confidence level has increased. Pam has seen her student advance to better jobs as the student's English proficiency has increased. This year the student is even helping teach English to Spanish-speaking children!

When asked what qualities a tutor most needs, Pam cites patience and understanding because each student has an outside life that does not always permit her to practice her new skills as much as the tutor would like. Because of this limited reinforcement of topics covered in a tutoring session, sometimes the student can become disheartened when progress seems slow. Encouragement is another important quality for the tutor to bring to each session.

Pam enjoys tutoring so much that she lightly says she may gain more from the experience than her student does. One thing that both have gained is friendship. "I would do anything for her, and she'd do the same for me," says Pam. Despite the bond between them, the student still has a hard time believing her tutor helps her for free.

What a powerful statement this makes about the kindness of our literacy volunteers!

Maggie Nelson

The Literacy Council of Union County's tutoring program was not Maggie Nelson's first exposure to teaching adults to read. Indeed, she has tutored American adults in a library program in Virginia as well as in her native state of Washington. In speaking of her experiences with adult new readers, Nelson says she finds them to be tough, gritty people--real survivors. According to Nelson, all the adults she's taught were "impressive" people. When asked why she tutors, sometimes as many as four days per week, Nelson speaks of her interest in meeting new people as well as the benefit from being "useful" while having fun at the same time. Having spent the last 30 years without a TV, Nelson claims there is a lot of entertainment value in tutoring. She is convinced the tutoring experience is much more enjoyable than anything found on TV.

Since beginning her tutoring with Literacy Union over two years ago, Nelson has worked with students whose native languages were Vietnamese and Spanish. Although she knows a little Spanish, Nelson had no experience with it and further agrees that to teach someone to speak English, the only requirement is that the tutor be able to speak English. Nelson, familiar to many in Union County from her work as a lead animal control officer for Union County Animal Control, says she loves her job working with animals. She also loves tutoring even though this volunteer experience is about as far away from her work experiences as one could get. She wouldn't want to give up either "job" but wished she had some additional free time so she could tutor even more students. We wish so, too!

Wanda Ruple
Wanda
After moving to Union County 2.5 years ago, Wanda Ruple was looking for an opportunity to get involved in the community. She saw a newspaper article about the Literacy Council's adult tutoring program and thought this might be something worthwhile.

Ruples says the best part of the tutoring experience has been the friendships she has formed with the students she has tutored. In almost two years of tutoring, Ruple has had a total of four students, all Mexican. She has found all of them to be hardworking, wonderful people who are striving to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Indeed, Ruple says the most important quality a tutor needs to have is a love for people. For her, the tutoring experience fills a need in her life to "make a difference in someone else's life." She also sees the tutoring program as helping the whole community because a community is made up of individuals.

Besides, says Ruple, "Tutoring is fun!" She remembers the gratification she has felt when something "clicks" in the student's learning process. Although from time to time there have been some concepts that were difficult for a student to learn, Ruple is more likely to recall the moment when the light came on for a student and the elation they both shared.

As faith missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Ruples already knew a little about intercultural communications. Trips to El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico have given her an appreciation for how rich most Americans are--yet do not realize it. Tutoring is a way for her to share her bounty: her knowledge of English.

To Tutor Profiles, Page 1


The Literacy Council of Union County is a non-profit organization that teaches adults to read and/or speak English. Please contact our office for further information.