News stories tagged with "literacy"

(04/10/12) For more than 50 years, Ruth Colvin and her husband have traveled to more than 60 countries and provided literacy training in Africa, Asia and South America. In 1962, Colvin founded Literacy Volunteers of America. She's also written many books on basic literacy and English as a second language. Colvin was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993 and awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.

Tonight at 7 pm in Griffiths 123 at St. Lawrence University, she'll share stories her new book, Off the Beaten Path: Stories of People Around the World.

Now 95-years-old, Colvin has filled her Syracuse home with art and souvenirs from around the world, but she told Todd Moe that working with people and sharing their stories are favorite aspects of her career.

(09/27/11) In our occasional series, Moving the World, we meet North Country people who take their skills, expertise and resources to share with communities around the globe. Paul Smiths College hosts the founder of the Atlas Cultural Foundation, which helps Moroccans in one of the poorest regions of North Africa. Atlas is affiliated with Adirondack Sustainable Communities, which promotes healthy development in our region. Todd Moe talks with Chloe Erickson about her group's efforts to help improve community health, cultural preservation, education and literacy. She'll give a lecture tonight (7 pm) in the Freer Hall Auditorium at Paul Smiths College.

(04/07/09) Marian Brickner, animal photographer and co-creator of a children's book about bonobos, I'm Lucy, is visiting SUNY Potsdam this week. Bonobos are another branch of the great ape family, like a kind of chimpanzee. Brickner is a 50-year alumna of SUNY Potsdam. She will be meeting with students in photography and literacy classes and with the after-school mentor program in the Sheard Literacy Center. There's an informal "picture show" and discussion that will be open to the public Wdnesday at 1:30 pm at SUNY Potsdam's Crumb Library. Brickner was in our studios this morning to talk with Martha Foley.

(05/15/08) Literacy of Northern New York is seeking volunteers to teach English as a second language classes. The not-for-profit is trying to keep up with a growing number of military and academic spouses and farmworkers who want to learn English in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. Deborah Tate runs the organization's ESL program. She told David Sommerstein the students come from all over the world.

You can volunteer to be a tutor by calling 782-4270 in Jefferson and Lewis counties, and 265-0194 in St. Lawrence county.

(01/23/08) Check out your local bookstore or library and you'll find lots of books for infants and toddlers with vivid images and bold colors. But, how about the elderly? A Vermont woman is creating a series of picture books for seniors. The first is titled Lavender Ladies. Natalie Tucker Miller told Todd Moe that she got the idea for the books after reading stories to a group of residents at her mother's nursing home.

(09/06/07) Literacy of Northern New York of St. Lawrence County will be holding a free five-part training course for new tutors starting this Saturday in Potsdam. Coordinator Bobbie Gordon says there's a waiting list of people who have requested free one-to-one lessons, and new tutors are very much in demand. She spoke with Todd Moe.

(04/27/06) The latest concert in the SeaComm Blues for Books series is set for Friday night starting at 8 at the Best Western University Inn in Canton. The concert will feature the blues group, the Conrad Story Blues Band. Celebrating its fifth year; Blues for Books is a fund-raiser event for First Book of St. Lawrence County. First Book is the regional affiliate of National First Book, a non-profit organization supporting family literacy by providing children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new book. Todd Moe talks with Rick Bates, of the Conrad Story Blues Band and SeaComm Federal Credit Union's Jerry Manor about Friday night's benefit concert and the Blues for Books program.

(03/31/06) Competitive scrabble is coming back to the North Country on Sunday. There are scrabble competitions at SUNY Potsdam and at Jefferson Community College. Both are benefits for Literacy Volunteers of America. Gregory Warner attended the competition last year. The youngest team that entered was a group of high school students from Parishville Hopkinton. As he found out, they weren't all the kind of students you might expect. This story originally aired last April.
For information about the tournament, contact the Literacy of Northern NY office at 265-0194 or at: lvastlaw@hotmail.com. Registration forms are available at most libraries.

(01/04/06) More adult New Yorkers are "below basic" literacy than the national average. A federal study out this week showed adults in New York had lower levels of literacy in the key areas of reading prose -- for example a newspaper article -- and document literacy -- like filling out job applications. New York does have a high immigrant population, which may account for some of the results. State Education Commissioner Richard Mills announced the state will 'redouble its efforts' in adult and immigrant education programs. The study -- and the commissioner's promise -- comes just as federal funding for adult literacy programs has been cut.

Joe Campbell coordinates the Even Start program in Franklin County. Even Start tutors children and their parents in reading. Campbell says federal funding for the program has dropped from $225 million to $100 million for next September. It's meant he's had to cut staff. He told Gregory Warner the federal funds only allow about a half year of literacy instruction as it is.

(10/01/03) Governor Pataki and State Education Commissioner Richard Mills announced that they've received $130 million from the Bush Administration in Washington to help children learn to read. Karen DeWitt reports.