We invite you to meet Ruby, our featured student this month in our “Learner Spotlight”. Featured adult learners represent the Literacy Council’s programs, including authors from Reflections: Voices of English Learners, the Literacy Council’s literary magazine, as well as adult learners in other programs. Ruby contributed her stories to the eighth edition. As a former...
When did you first start volunteering with The Literacy Council of Frederick County and what made you decide to do so? I began volunteering last year, but my connection with the Literacy Council started earlier when I participated in several of its programs as a student. The support I received, including working with a personal...
We invite you to meet Bunkong, our featured student this month in our “Learner Spotlight”. Featured adult learners represent the Literacy Council’s programs, including authors from Reflections: Voices of English Learners, the Literacy Council’s literary magazine, as well as adult learners in other programs. Bunkong contributed her story to the eighth edition. My name is...
When did you first start volunteering with The Literacy Council of Frederick County and what made you decide to do so? I started tutoring back in November of 2020 but it seems like only yesterday. I was already retired and was looking for something useful to do with some of my time. I looked up...
When did you first start volunteering with The Literacy Council of Frederick County and what made you decide to do so? I completed my volunteer training in June 2025 after seeing a flyer for the council at a local coffee shop. I’d been searching for a meaningful way to give back to the community, and...
When Esperanza left an 18-year career as a family doctor at a children’s hospital in Cale, Colombia to move to the United States, it was just the beginning of a second career in community health care and advocacy. But she didn’t know it at the time – just like she also had no idea that...
When Rosilene started taking classes here at the Frederick Literacy Council, she was looking to improve her English language skills. What she didn’t expect was that she’d also develop a community and gain so much insight into American culture. She and her family had moved to the states from Jacarei, a city in Sao Paulo,...
We invite you to meet Allison, our featured staff member this month. Allison grew up in Frederick County and brings empathy to her role as Program Coordinator. Learn more about her path towards nonprofit work in her own words in this month’s Staff Spotlight vlog. We would like to thank our volunteer, Shira K., for all the...
If you’re having trouble figuring out how to put your spare time to good use, consider what Caroline Gaver did in 1975. She became a volunteer with the Literacy Council of Frederick County, and it’s a choice that has come to define a truly well lived life. “I don’t believe it myself,” Caroline Gaver laughs,...
Ralph DeRose is a partner in Oscar’s Alehouse, a group of restaurants in Maryland that has built its success by creating family-friendly spaces where customers enjoy “top-notch food and service,” he says. Another ingredient in the restaurants’ success, Ralph notes, is a policy of giving something back to patrons’ communities whenever possible. In the restaurant...
