At THE HOLYOKE TUTOR/MENTOR PROGRAM we believe change comes through education.

The Holyoke Tutor/Mentor Program provides training and helps place literacy volunteers in adult education settings in Holyoke. Volunteers contribute about an hour a week.

The next nine-hour Volunteer Training begins November 26 and runs for three Monday mornings.

Contact Tzivia Gover, program coordinator at 413-534-3376 or visit www.holycham.com/tutor to find out more, and to register for the training.

Those of us who have chosen to be educators in one form or another — as tutor/mentors, adult basic education instructors, grade school teachers, professors, workshop leaders or trainers —  may now feel that we believe what we did before, only now we believe it with greater resolve. Real change can come about through education. Access to accurate information allows us to formulate reasoned responses that are best for ourselves and our communities.

So it is not surprising that the adult education has been looking at various ways to respond to the September 11 tragedy for both teachers and learners. In Western Massachusetts SABES (www.sabes.org) is taking a leadership role in helping to gather and disseminate information, including web sites that offer teaching materials and lesson plans that are appropriate for adult learners in the wake of recent events. Also be on the lookout for upcoming workshops and seminars on various topics including teaching about stereotypes.
 

Writing in response to terror

 With my eyes closed I see
how two skyscrapers tumble
down on me.

With my eyes closed I feel the
sadness and anger everybody
else feels.

With my eyes closed I know
that when I wake up it was not
a dream, as unreal as it seems
this will never be just a dream.
 
 

Tutoring is a two-way Street
An Interview with Elliott Smith
by Tzivia Gover
    One point Elliott Smith, former coordinator of the Holyoke Tutor/Mentor Program is adamant about is this: Tutor/mentors are not in business to “lend a hand.” He explains: “You’re not doing something for someone. You’re doing something together.”
    Smith first joined the Holyoke Tutor/Mentor Program as a volunteer and then became program coordinator from 1994 to 1999. He left that job to begin work as a High School English teacher in Springfield, but he has remained an active supporter of the program, even filling in during a staff change last summer.
    Smith learned for himself that in tutoring the learning goes two ways when he was working with a learner whose life seemed to be falling apart. “My first reaction was to handle the problem,” he said. “Then I realized that it wouldn’t help for me to do it for her. … We had to figure out a strategy together.”
    The ideal tutor-learner relationship is one in which both people are learning. For his part, Smith said he learned about Puerto Rican culture and history through his association with the program.
Not only are both tutor and learner being educated through their association with one another, both are also summoning courage and crossing borders, Smith says. For the learner, there may be a great deal of fear to overcome in order to enroll in an adult education class. “Consider what it takes for an adult to go back to school,” Smith says. “You have to fill out an application, you may have to take a test, and there’s a chance you will fail.”
    Tutors have borders to cross as well, he says. “You may be going into a part of town you don’t go into. You may be going into a facility you’ve never gone into. You may also be going into a new territory in terms of language and culture.”
    This mutual learning experience has touched the lives of hundreds of people in and around Holyoke over the past ten years.  But there is no real way to measure the profound but intangible impact the Tutor/Mentor program has had on the lives of tutors and learners.
    There are many area organizations and institutions that have helped the tutor/mentor program do its work. Smith points out two in particular: The Department of Transitional Assistance, which has consistently and generously provided funding for the program over the years, and The Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce. It was the Chamber, led by President Doris Ransford, that had the vision to include a literacy program as part of its Holyoke Employment Partnership. “They recognized the potential connections,” Smith said of Ransford and the Chamber staff.
    Smith ended our conversation by looking down at the notes he’d made in preparation for our talk. “The last word in my notes is ‘hope,’ he said. “I’ll end with that: hope.”

Quote Unquote:
 “My first and most precious student was Maria. Maria had come from Portugal 25 years ago with her husband and five children. Maria was the oldest of five children. Her mother died when Maria was five years old and Maria had to stop school in order to take care of her siblings. When I met Maria her reading and writing was on a first grade level. Maria was determined to get her U.S. citizenship and asked me to help her. The books were too overwhelming for Maria so I typed and then audiotaped pertinent information that would help her study for her citizenship exam. No one in Maria's family thought that this was a worthwhile use of her time, so Maria struggled along with just me as her cheerleader. When the time came to go to Boston for the test, my husband, my children and I brought Maria for her test. Maria was so nervous and afraid of failing. I remember her coming out of the testing room
 waving little American flags that she had brought in her handbag. What a wonderful feeling to know that I had helped someone achieve her lifelong dream!
 The thing that most people don't understand about volunteering is that the volunteer receives so much back for her (his) efforts. It has been an honor and a privilege to help people work toward a brighter future.”

The Time is Right to Volunteer 2001 is the Year of the Volunteer The United Nations General Assembly has dubbed 2001 the International Year of the Volunteer. The objective is to recognize volunteers worldwide and to promote volunteering.  Here at the Holyoke Tutor/Mentor Program we are doing our part. We currently have twenty active volunteers who work at several sites in and around Holyoke to help promote improved literacy among adult learners. Our volunteers include recent college graduates, working men and women and retirees. If you would like to become a volunteer for literacy, join our next training. Tutor/mentors contribute an hour a week or more of their time, and from all reports, the rewards are priceless.  Join the millions of volunteers worldwide and get involved. You can check out the International Year of the Volunteer web site at www.iyv2001.org.  Volunteer Opportunities with the Tutor/Mentor Program  In addition to our need for tutors, we can also use volunteers to help with various tasks, including:  keeping our new web site (www.holycham.com/tutor) up to date word processing assistance for occasional projects including anthologies of student writing designing new flyers and a new brochure for the program

A Creative Approach Poems From Poetry For A  Purpose To see some of the poems that were composed by young mothers in a Poetry for a Purpose workshop at the Holyoke Care Center go to www.teenholyoke.com. Poet Ruth Medina, who participated in the Care Center workshop is pictured here.  The Poetry for a Purpose workshops mentioned above were led by Tzivia Gover, Program Coordinator for the Holyoke Tutor/Mentor Program, which operates in conjunction with the Holyoke Chamber of Commerce.   Poetry for a Purpose workshops are supported in part by a grant from the Holyoke Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Calling All Poets and Writers A group of GED students at Mass Jobs Training Inc.’s Holyoke Site participated in a 5-week Poetry for a Purpose workshop this spring. We studied poems by poets Martin Espada, Lucille Clifton, Ruth Stone, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Langston Hughes, Cheryl Savageau and the eighteenth century female Japanese Haiku master Chiyo-ni. In response, the students wrote poetry of their own including several group poems, which we composed together. Some of the poets who participated are pictured here: (Counter-clockwise from left: Lee Flores, Kayleigh Bergeron and. Aracelis Morales and Latoya Crapps. Also pictured is Debbie Hines). One of the group’s assignments was to continue Maya Angelou’s famous poem “Still I Rise” in their own words.  What began as a way for me to structure my volunteer hours, is now growing into a broader program that can include more tutors and more learners. The Holyoke Cultural Council has awarded the Holyoke Tutor/Mentor Program a grant to fund the Poetry for All project. This project uses reading and writing poetry as a tool to improve literacy skills.  We read poems by authors from William Shakespeare to Joy Harjo and everyone in between, then write poetry inspired by the form or content of what we have read. The results to date have been truly inspiring. Now I would like to train more writers, especially poets, to implement this program in Adult Basic Education, GED and ESL classes. We are also looking to bring a similar project into the Holyoke Public Schools. If you are interested in learning more about this highly rewarding volunteer opportunity, please contact me, Tzivia Gover, at 534-3376 or holyoketutor@hotmail.com  Still I Rise, Continued After Maya Angelou’s Poem A group poem by: Tammy Torres, Aracelis Morales, Joselyn Padilla, Tina Ruiz, Sandra Rivera, Lee Flores, Martha Cabellero, Wanda Perez, Jennifer Garcia and Sarah Line  You tried to say I’m worthless  But I’ve got diamonds in my eyes  And still I rise.  He tried to see me broken  But I broke him instead  And still I rise.  To you my skin and blood  May be a slop and slime  But to me it is as fine as wine  And still I rise.  It’s hard being a single parent  But I wouldn’t give it up for the world  And still I rise.  As the world turns and changes  My heart remains the same  And still I rise.  You may kill me with your words  But I don’t care; I can still handle it  And still I rise.  I don’t have nothing  And still I rise.  My life is full of heartbreak and sorrow  But I never let anyone tie me down  And still I rise.  He’s sassy  But now he’s really nasty  And still I rise.  When he pays all that child support  I will rise, rise, rise.  I’ve had to face everything in my life  And face so many changes  And still  I rise.