Our Families
THE CALDERON FAMILY
“SHE SHOULD BE ANYTHING SHE WANTS—DOCTOR, LAWYER, ANYTHING.”
Learning can be contagious, especially when it’s nurtured through family literacy programs. Just ask the Calderon family. Armando and Laura Calderon are Mexican immigrants who had little education and limited English skills. Determined to make a better life for themselves and their child, Deanna, they enrolled in a family literacy program. In just over a year, Laura Calderon earned her General Educational Development (GED) certificate at the Glades Tri-City Family Education Program, supported by the Florida Family Literacy Initiative. It was a major feat for this young woman who left school behind to help her family pick vegetables.
“After my family moved here from Mexico, we all had to work,” Laura explains. “I was a teenager but educated only at about the 7th-grade level, and I couldn’t read well in English.” She and her two sisters quit school to work the fields. “My parents were upset, although I didn’t understand why — until Deanna was born.”
In the family literacy program, the Calderons have improved their English-language skills through reading together as a family, which has greatly enhanced Deanna’s performance in school. Laura now mentors others through the family literacy program. She attends community college and plans to become a teacher.
“I want my daughter to be more than a regular employee like me when she grows up,” Armando says. “She should be anything she wants — doctor, lawyer, anything. We can’t push her to do this; we have to show her how to do this. Her first example will be Laura when she gets her degree.”
Armando is an electrician’s helper at a sugar mill. He works an average of 50 hours per week. Recently he completed his first computer class using skills he learned through the literacy program.
“My family is helping me turn my life around. It is very hard to do — always studying at night after work,” Armando says. “But it is worth it.”
Perhaps the person who has been influenced the most by family literacy is their daughter Deanna. She is enrolled in a magnet school and is performing well. Committed to education, Laura and Armando have enrolled Deanna in a prepaid college program.
THE GODFREY FAMILY
”FAMILIES THAT LEARN TO READ TOGETHER, LEARN TO ACHIEVE TOGETHER — REGARDLESS OF OBSTACLES.”
Family literacy can be a tremendous unifier. Families that learn to read together learn to achieve together — regardless of obstacles. Like all caring parents, Sallie Burton Godfrey and her husband, Ellis Godfrey, have big hopes and dreams for their child. But unlike most parents, their vision for the future took on a new dimension when they learned upon her birth that their daughter, Princess-Skylar, was deaf.
The Godfreys worried about how to help their daughter realize her true potential in life and, more importantly, how to best communicate with her. Life for the Godfrey family changed dramatically when they enrolled in the Alliance for Families with Deaf Children Family Literacy Academy, a program supported by the Florida Family Literacy Initiative.
Through the program, the family learned American Sign Language, which has enabled them to communicate with each other and to read together. In fact, reading together has become the family’s favorite pastime, helping them improve their communication skills through the constant structured practice reading provides.
Because of the family literacy program, the Godfreys now feel more empowered in life. They have learned how to be effective teachers for Princess-Skylar. Young Princess-Skylar is teaching her parents that being deaf does not have to be an obstacle to success. Recently she went to summer camp with children who can hear and, as her mother says, “took control.” Instead of Princess-Skylar feeling like the odd one out, she became a point of interest for the other children and began to teach them to sign.
She has progressed so well in the past year with her reading and writing skills that she will be attending mainstream school this year. The Godfrey family has become an inspiration to others. They believe the best way parents can teach their children is to learn together. “We all need some help from someone,” Sallie says. “Parents have to have an active role in their children’s lives — get in there, roll up their sleeves. There is no greater unifier than learning together as a family. It begins with reading.”
THE RAMIREZ FAMILY
“WE GET TO SEE EACH OTHER WORK HARD TO BE THE BEST WE CAN BE.”
Genaro and Nicole Ramirez epitomize family literacy. Their entire family, both mom and dad and the four children, are all enrolled in one of our Family Literacy Academies. Genaro has been attending for three years and will earn his GED in 2008.
Like many families, Nicole and Genaro had tried to complete their education by enrolling in various adult education courses. However, with no one to watch their young children several nights a week, combined with a lack of support and time, Nicole and Genaro had difficulty completing their classes.
One day Nicole found a Lake Wales Family Literacy Academy flyer which offered child care, tutoring, dinner, and transportation. As Genaro shares, “We called the program and were welcomed as if they had known us forever, and knew what we had desired for our family all along — the chance to learn as a family.”
Genaro also credits the Academy for having social workers to advise them, as well as tutors who are extremely encouraging to the family. He shares that he and Nicole struggled with taking time for themselves to learn when they had four young children. Now, however, the children are with them in the same school setting, and as Genaro says, “We get to see each other work hard to be the best we can be.”