Literacy Live!

Appreciation, Opportunity, Reinvigorated

2012 AmeriCorps Instructors (l to r)
Katherine Lee, Xavier Munoz, Rachel Conn Martin and Katie Trizna

It’s been a privilege for me to serve as an AmeriCorps member at the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia the past eleven months. But my work here is not done. There is still so much more than I can gain and contribute, which is why I will be serving a second year as an LCNV AmeriCorps member! But looking back on my first service year, I can sum up my experience so far in three words –appreciation, opportunity, and reinvigorated.

Appreciation

LCNV’s volunteers are downright amazing. At our class sites, I’ve gotten to work alongside retired public school teachers with an undying passion for teaching, individuals that work full time, and lifelong volunteers who have volunteered with LCNV for over a decade. But there are other volunteers with whom I’ve also interacted:

• Volunteer Placement Advisors in the Basic Adult Literacy and ESOL Tutoring Programs test new students, match students with tutors, and provide ongoing support to the tutor-student pairs. If one thinks of tutors programs as neighbors helping neighbors. Then the PAs are neighbors helping neighbors helping neighbors.
• Outreach volunteers go to events like the recent Annandale High School Pyramid Back to School Resource Fair to raise awareness of LCNV as a quality place that supports parents and adults in the community.
• Office volunteers come in on a weekly basis to help with IT, run the library, and offer other departmental support.
• Susan Kral was the AmeriCorps Program Coordinator the past three years for LCNV, Loudoun Literacy Council, and BEACON for Adult Literacy. As if managing the AmeriCorps federal grant wasn’t enough of a task for a volunteer, she also acted as a “mama bear” for me and the other AmeriCorps members.

I’m left inspired by how committed to service these volunteers are. And I have a new understanding of how invaluable a robust core of volunteers is to the longevity and success of a nonprofit organization.

Opportunity

My one expectation for the year was to gain experience teaching ESOL to adults. LCNV has given me teaching experience and then some. I’ve been able to represent LCNV in a number of ways beyond my primary role as an ESOL classroom instructor: co-presenting on behalf of LCNV at the 2013 Virginia Literacy Leadership Council conference, playing a small role in LCNV’s The Washington Post award honorable mention, and doing a TV spot on LCNV’s classes and learners.

With immigration reform coming to a head, there is an opportunity for adult education to become a larger part of the national discussion. LCNV and other adult education providers will be called upon to play a crucial role in helping adults participate more fully in their communities and workplaces. As a second-year AmeriCorps member, I will be able to help LCNV lead that discussion.

Reinvigorated

Setting aside community service that was required in high school, I started to volunteer only a year or two ago. As a college graduate with no job, I volunteered in an attempt to make my academic background useful. I also volunteered with the hopes that it would improve my chances of being admitted to grad school.

In the winter of 2012, I became an adult literacy tutor with I CAN Community Education Coalition which is a nonprofit based in Hillsborough County, Florida. I worked one-on-one with a gentleman from Jamaica. Every tutoring session left me with new questions. How could I help him master this-or-that syllable structure? What activities could we do to make two-digit multiplication come alive for him? I was challenged to become a better educator as much as, if not more than, he was challenged to learn.

And, through tutoring him, all of my coursework in psychology, linguistics, and speech-language pathology suddenly became more relevant. What I was doing became meaningful. And that fulfillment has only increased over this past AmeriCorps service year. In college, I studied for myself. At I CAN before and with LCNV now, I study for the adults I serve. I’ve stopped thinking about expanding my resume and beefing up my grad school applications. Instead, I’m thinking about what I need to do to make each class better than the last.

In truth, I never dreamed of becoming a teacher when I was younger. But serving in adult education has jumpstarted my interests and motivated me to improve myself for the sake of those I serve. Working in adult education just feels right. And so, I plan to start an M.A. in TESOL in the fall of 2014. Until then, I’m continuing on as a second-year AmeriCorps member because I want to be a part of LCNV’s continued growth and success. I’m continuing on for a second year because I want to be there with LCNV’s learners as they continue to “participate more fully and confidently in their communities” and in their lives.

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Xavier Munoz, AmeriCorps Instructor
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042
www.lcnv.org