Carlsbad Literacy Program

I am the new Coordinator for this program. I applied for this position because in the past I was a tutor for Carlsbad Literacy. I was about 19, (now 29)and decided I needed to do more for our community. The coordinator at the time was a close friend of my mothers and member of my families church. She told me about the volunteer opportunity to tutor an illiterate adult. I was very nervous and it wasn't really my area of interest at the time. I started with a Russian girl. She said she just moved here because she married an American doctor. She was tired of having someone drive her around while her husband worked all day and asked me to help her get her drivers license. She was already a ESL student at CLP and spoke very very little English. I tutored her for a 6 months and in that six months she was also working with an esl instructor and I noticed how she picked up English so fast within months, it amazed me. Her confidence level and attitude started to change. She was happy and smiled more. One day after tutoring her for her drivers license she said she was ready to take the test. The day she walked in the room for our next session she had a huge smile on her face and teared up. She gave me a huge hug and some roses and said she couldn't thank me enough for helping her get her drivers license. It was then I knew that I could make a difference in peoples lives. That was the first and last time I volunteered to be a tutor, As I went on to college Carlsbad Literacy was always in the back of my mind and that good feeling I got when I seen how excited she was to have her drivers license. I was a woman of very little self confidence and motivation untill then. I think we both changed eachothers lives for the better. After marrying and having 3 beautiful children. I noticed an ad in the paper for the Coordinator position, I got that feeling again and I knew that this was meant to be for me. Carlsbad Literacy program changes lives in ways we cant even imagine. The simplest petty things like learning to read, getting a drivers license, and reading to our children mean a lot, but there are people out there who have no idea what its like. Im happy to be apart of this program today and to reach out to those who need our help in our community. Programs like Carlsbad Literacy make a difference and change lives for the better.