The Literacy Council Book Club is organized by Catherine Coundjeris, who volunteers in many roles with the Literacy Council including as an instructor, ESL coordinator, and co-editor of the council’s literary magazine Reflections: Voices of English Learners. The club meets twice a year, in winter and summer. The Winter book club met for four sessions and engaged...
On February 27th, I gathered with about 40 other members of the Frederick community to hear learners with the Literacy Council read aloud their stories, which had just been published in the 7th edition of the Reflections magazine. The stories we heard came from around the world. One told of a hard-working mother in Honduras...
Hello! My name is Tetiana. I moved to the USA from Ukraine two and a half years ago. Naturally, like most people, I faced difficulties related to not knowing English. In Ukraine, I worked as a speech therapist, and speech has always been my strong point. Therefore, when I came to America, I felt like...
Since JinJin, one of our writers in our Reflections magazine, started working with the Literacy Council, her journey has been “a series of beautiful moments” inspired by her children. This is how she describes it: From being shy and unsure of how to express myself to becoming fluent and confident, I take pride in the...
How very strange—and wonderful— it is to realize that, after working at something for most of your adult life, you still have the capacity to learn. I am someone who avoids too much introspection, but that changed when, after a long career as an editor and writer, I retired from the Smithsonian Institution. Anyone...
The Literacy Council is again honored to be one of 37 nonprofit organizations participating in the Unity Campaign for Frederick County, hosted by United Way of Frederick County. The Unity Campaign supports the over one in three households in Frederick County that struggle to afford basic human necessities! The campaign is focused on funding programs directly supporting the health,...
Matthew can speak more than ten languages. They reveal the adventurous journey he has taken through several countries. Born in Benin, a country in West Africa, he learned French and five local languages. He picked up three more languages in the neighboring country of Togo. When he moved to South Africa, he learned Afrikaans and...
Matthew, 52, was a long way from Frederick when he first began a journey that would ultimately bring him through our doors at the Literacy Council. Matthew was born in Benin, a country in West Africa. Jobs aren’t easy to come by in Benin, but Matthew was good at making work for himself. At a...
Although she may stammer sometimes with her English, the dedication that Jhanet has put into achieving her goals for herself and her family speaks loud and clear volumes. Jhanet, a native of Peru, came to the United States six years ago. After learning about the Frederick County Literacy Council’s Parent Literacy Program, she enrolled in...
