Local third-graders graduate from America Reads program
Yale, in partnership with New Haven's Timothy Dwight Elementary School, hosted the America Reads Challenge graduation for 80 students from the city school and their Yale tutors on April 26.
The America Reads Challenge, sponsored by Yale, is in its fifth year and has served a total of 500 students. Every third-grader at Dwight is tutored three times a week by a Yale student, totaling over 16,000 hours of volunteer work each year.
"This free one-on-one tutoring gives the sort of help that students can't receive in the classroom," says Nikki Vo, coordinator of Yale's public schools partnership program. "It is a wonderful experience for both the third-graders and the Yale students. Tutors and students have formed bonds that last beyond the tutoring experience. Timothy Dwight students who have graduated from the program, for instance, still stay in touch with their third-grade reading partner."
According to Bernadette Strode, principal of Timothy Dwight School, "There has been a significant increase in the reading of storybooks, novels and other materials from our students. This program certainly exemplifies the high level of achievement that we look for in putting our kids first."
America Reads is a national campaign challenging every American to help children learn to read. It includes college students and citizens of all ages tutoring children; seniors starting lending libraries; businesses donating time, money and books; and policy-makers and elected officials focusing on literacy. Parents who read to their children every night and children themselves promising to read 30 minutes per day in the summer also play an important role in the program. For more information, visit www.ed.gov/inits/americareads.
America Reads is just one of many programs dedicated to education and human development that Yale sponsors in New Haven. More than 10,000 young people participate in athletic and academic programs at the University each year.
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