When Lupe came to the Literacy Council in the fall of 2013, he was already reading and speaking English at a high-intermediate level but did not know how to write in English. He’d been in the US for several years – since he was 16 years old – but had never attended school here. Now he runs a successful construction business where his steadily-improving writing skills are put to good use in communication with both suppliers and clients.
In addition, he delights in his increasing ability to help his young son with homework, which is something he was not able to do before. Lupe’s tutor, Mike, reports that Lupe is an enthusiastic learner who’s made impressive progress not only in writing and spelling but also in pronunciation and reading comprehension – a claim supported by two consecutive years of significant gains on the annual CASAS test that the Literacy Council uses as a measure of student achievement.
Mike says, “Lupe is such a hard worker, and actually one of our biggest challenges is just finding the time for tutoring sessions, because he has so much to do, with work and family and everything else.” A testament to Lupe’s dedication, though, is the fact that while his company was doing a particularly large job creating loft apartments in historic buildings in downtown Hendersonville (READ MORE HERE) Lupe would leave the job to come to his tutoring session in the early evening and then go back to work until midnight or later. It would have been so easy to skip his classes on those long days, but Lupe does not take the easy way out!
The Literacy Council staff sends a big and heartfelt thank you to Mike for all the time and effort he has devoted to Lupe over the past year and a half, along with congratulations to Lupe on his achievements so far and best wishes for continued self-improvement and business success in the years to come!
