GREEN BROOK WOMAN DISCOVERS HOPE FOR FUTURE
BY EARNING GED DIPLOMA
Green Brook, NJ --- She is beautiful, charming, and flashes a radiant smile. Her impressive resume of jobs includes a law firm, travel agency, international bank and even Wall Street commodities firm. But for years, Susana Barros-Ferreira of Green Brook was bothered by a nagging sense of failure. Following a turbulent childhood, filled with feelings of abandonment and instability, the Portuguese immigrant dropped out of her Newark high school. She has regretted her actions ever since.
Now, at the age of 39, the wife and mother is filled with a tremendous sense of pride and anticipation for the future, after earning her GED high school equivalency diploma.
“One year ago, when my son was preparing to graduate high school, I decided that I had to do it. I had to get my GED. My son needs to have a parent that is educated,” said Barros-Ferreira. That’s when the Office Manager at Servenco Enterprises, an asset management company, searched the internet and discovered Literacy Volunteers of Union County’s free GED Test Preparation Class. The non-profit, which is dedicated to teaching functionally illiterate adults to read, write and speak English, launched the course in response to growing community demand.
“Our goal is to break the cycle of illiteracy,” said Dawn Harrison of Scotch Plains, field services coordinator at Literacy Volunteers. “By offering the support for adults to prepare for and pass the GED, we are opening up doors and providing opportunity.”
Barros-Ferreira, who married Armindo Ferreira four years ago, attended the volunteer-led classes more than two hours a day, four days a week, for 14 weeks in order to prepare for the challenging five-part test. “The class was filled with working people, parents, young mothers, all wanting a better life,” said Barros-Ferreira.
It was the search for a better life that brought Barros-Ferreira’s own mother to the U.S. more than thirty years ago. A single-parent, she left young Susana behind in Portugal with an uncle. “I was seven years old and felt totally abandoned,” said Barros-Ferreira. “It wasn’t until I was 12 years old that I joined my mother here.”
By that time she had already failed in school and lost any sense of self-esteem. Barros-Ferreira said no one understood back then how to deal with her attention deficit disorder. “They labeled me as stupid,” she said.
Her teen years in the Ironbound Section of Newark were filled with sadness as she continued to deal with issues of abandonment. “I struggled in all ways – academically and socially. I didn’t accomplish what I should have. My mom was not a great motivator. She couldn’t explain the right and wrongs of life.”
Barros-Ferreira became a young, single mother herself and after a short time away from home, ended up moving back in with her mom. “My mother helped me raise my own son while I went to work,” she said. “I didn’t want to repeat the neglect. I wanted to give my son the love I never got.”
With her friendly manner, office skills, and ability to speak both Portuguese and Spanish, Barros-Ferreira was always able to find work, but her lack of a high school diploma always nagged at the back of her mind. “I was dealing with so many highly educated people. I wanted to have something… to feel I’ve done it.”
And now she has. With her GED in hand, she is ready to sign up for college courses in public relations, marketing and business. “Getting the GED and going on to college will provide me with stability, and shows me I can pursue anything. I don’t want any obstacles in my way. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you – just as long as you do it,” she exclaimed.
With time and reflection, Barros-Ferreira has gained valuable perspective on her life. “I came to understand how everything was connected. When you understand why – it opens the door to make changes,” she said. “And when you have positive thoughts, you can start to believe in yourself.”
LITERACY CELEBRATES THIRD EDITION OF STUDENT MAGAZINE
Freeholders Congratulate Tutors and Students
On June 8, 2011, Literacy Volunteers of Union County celebrated the publication of “Connections,” a literary magazine highlighting the accomplishments of adult learners. A record-setting crowd of 140 attendees included Freeholders Linda Carter and Betty Jane Kowalski. Freeholders Carter and Kowalski congratulated the adult learners whose writings and artwork appear in the magazine and acknowledged the important step that these individuals are taking to improve not only their lives but the lives of their children and families.
The students represented individuals of all levels, some learning to read and others studying to learn English. These adult learners come not only from the far-away countries of Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Egypt, Costa Rica, Guyana, Ecuador, and Peru but also the nearby cities of Elizabeth, Plainfield, Scotch Plains, and Kenilworth, New Jersey. Their tutors beamed with pride and enthusiasm as they introduced fifteen student readers.
A variety of emotions flowed throughout the evening as stories were told. Yidi’s young daughters danced with his tutor as he read his poem “Girls,” and it was evident where his inspiration was born. Reading her essay “Good Experiences,” Patricia said, “When I came to the USA, it was when a new life began…I gave thanks for my teacher for his patience. Also with his help I became a U.S. citizen.” And with Robin’s statement, “I wish I had learned to read in grammar school. My life would have been so much easier…. one day I will be able to help other adults to read because I will know just how they feel,” we were all reminded how “Literacy Changes Lives!”
CELEBRATING NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK
Literacy Volunteers of Union County and Literacy Volunteers of the Plainfield Public Library honored tutors during a special Tutor Appreciation Event held on April 14 in Westfield at the Presbyterian Church.
A number of speakers welcomed the tutors, spoke about the value of volunteering and congratulated them for collectively volunteering close to 16,000 hours of free tutoring last year. Student speakers from the Basic Skills, English as a Second Language/Citizenship and GED programs highlighted the evening as they emotionally spoke about the impact their tutors have made on their lives.
All tutors were presented with a Certificate of Recognition from the UnionCounty Board of Chosen Freeholders, which was personally signed by Alexander Mirabella, Vice Chairman. All tutors also received a letter of appreciation from Bernadette Murphy, LVUC Board President and Joseph Da Rold, Plainfield Public Library Director, and a bookmark designed by the Tutor Liaison Committee (TLC) specifically for the event.
The evening ended with door prizes distributed to some lucky winners followed by gourment desserts and coffee donated by Board and TLC members.
TWENTY-FIVE VOLUNTEERS BECOME CERTIFIED TUTORS
A season of unusually heavy snow caused LVUC to delay the first session of the New Tutor Workshop on two separate weekends. As referred to by one of the new volunteers, the "most anticipated" workshop in history finally started on February 19, three weeks after the scheduled start date of January 29!
We congratulate these new volunteers for their persistence and dedication in becoming certified tutors.
DISABILITY IS NOT INABILITY
Dawn Harrison and Susan Petrow conducted an in service March 8 on Learning Disabilities to help tutors acquire additional skills and learn new techniques to use with their adult learners.
One of the objectives of the evening was to allow the tutors to experience the frustration, anxiety and tension that the learning disabled suffer every day. Through a series of speaking, reading and writing activities that were formatted specifically to illustrate how the learning disabled process and perceive information, the tutors now became "disabled" as they tried to complete the tasks.
Key to working with learning disabilities is helping the student to become an active learner who is fully involved in what he is doing. Most important is multisensory teaching which accommodates different learning styles and allows students to gain knowledge through the use of different senses. Incorporating a variety of tactile activities enables students to use their strengths to become effective learners.
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