Today, team READ USA is honored to announce the Michael Ward & Jennifer Glock Literacy Institute, named in honor of the Michael Ward & Jennifer Glock Foundation’s unprecedented $1 million gift to READ USA – the largest gift ever received in our organization’s history.
“Michael and Jennifer’s generosity is transformational for our organization and our community. We will be forever grateful for their legendary support,” our President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Robert Kelly shared. “They are passionate supporters of impactful education-focused initiatives, which reaffirms the impact READ USA is having on students and teens across Duval County. For READ USA to receive this exceptional gift demonstrates their strong belief in our mission and their commitment to investing in our youth.”
The Michael Ward & Jennifer Glock Literacy Institute directly supports the implementation of READ USA’s Literacy Tutoring, Family Engagement, and Literacy Professional Development for Educators programs. These programs, embedded in schools and community institutions across Duval County, work collectively to elevate the literacy and reading skills of students, teens, parents, and educators through high-interest books and high-quality teaching.
Now part of the Michael Ward & Jennifer Glock Literacy Institute, the intensive training that tutors and teachers receive is imperative to the Literacy Tutoring program’s success in advancing elementary students to grade-level reading proficiency. Furthermore, the Michael Ward & Jennifer Glock Literacy Institute supports the free literacy workshops, seminars, resources, and books that READ USA provides to parents, families, educators, reading coaches, paraprofessionals, and others throughout the year. All of these efforts are focused on elevating their impact on students’ literacy performance in the classroom.
“READ USA has created clever, well-constructed programming. We saw the impressive results and the real progress being made, particularly among students who are the furthest behind,” said Michael Ward. “You have to also think about the broader picture of what READ USA is doing. With the teacher shortage and pipeline struggles we face, education programs at universities declining, and other challenges, READ USA is exposing young people to the profession, which is so important.”
The $1 million gift is disbursed over four years from 2024-2027. To receive the gift from the Michael Ward & Jennifer Glock Foundation, READ USA secured four-year donation commitments from other donors, which totaled $1 million in matching funds. READ USA will use the funds to continue collectively supporting and scaling all of our programming focused on closing the literacy gap in Duval County.
Michael and Jennifer’s investment in the students we serve will have a ripple effect across Northeast Florida for generations to come. For that, our gratitude is boundless. We are also grateful for Michael and Jennifer taking the time to visit with our teen tutors, teachers, and students at elementary schools. They are an inspiration for not only achieving a life of success, but for reinvesting that success back into our community. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, Michael and Jennifer!
“This is the birthplace of imagination, creativity, innovation…”
“The confidence level in them just grows exponentially, and if they can feel that moment every single day…it’s the best feeling.”
Ever since she was in grade school herself, Principal Katie Adkins of Rutledge Pearson Elementary School has known she wants to be an educator. “I was captured,” says Principal Adkins, when she discusses her teacher, Miss Carson, at Mandarin Middle School, who made U.S. History so fun and interesting that her students felt they were part of the history she was teaching. “That got me into education and I never looked back.”
Watch Principal Adkins discuss why literacy is so vital not just to education, but to life:
It is for her unwavering dedication to the students of Duval County that Principal Adkins is our 2024 Marjorie Broward Memorial Scholarship Award honoree. Named in honor of librarian Marjorie Broward, the READ USA Marjorie Broward Memorial Scholarship Award is presented to a school leader who exemplifies Marjorie’s commitment to service, community, and the common good. Marjorie established libraries all over the globe and, closer to home, initiated JAX READS and many other book-related projects during her 95 years on this earth. We couldn’t think of a better person to reflect Marjorie’s commitment than Principal Adkins! The award also comes with a $2,500 grant for Principal Adkins to purchase books for her school.
Principal Adkins will be honored alongside six other award winners at our upcoming Peace in the Pages in Honor of Roseann Duran luncheon on Oct. 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at EverBank Stadium. You can read more about the event here.
Learn more about Principal Adkins in READ USA’s recently published Jeremy’s Journey book about her here!
We look forward to celebrating Principal Adkins and all of our awards winners in October!
Attendance to Peace in the Pages is currently a benefit to our generous donors who support READ USA at $1,000 a year or more. You can become a READ USA sponsor here or by contacting Sydney King, READ USA Development Senior Director, at sydney@readusainc.com.
READ USA Releases 2023 Impact Report
Last year, READ USA helped the students, teens, and educators of Duval County move the needle on grade-level reading proficiency more than ever before in our organization’s history. It was a year of unprecedented scaling and growth for READ USA – enabled and empowered by our donors, partners, and supporters – and our 2023 Impact Report has all of the details to share with you!
As our President & CEO and Board Chair stated in their opening letter, “Our foundational belief in the power of one only continues to grow and resonate more every day. Together, we know that a fully literate community is within our reach.”
Download and review our 2023 Impact Report here! If you would like to discuss READ USA’s programming or sponsorship, contact our Development Senior Director Sydney King at sydney@readusainc.com.
Literacy Tutoring Kicks off This Week!
At 16 elementary schools across Duval County, READ USA Literacy Tutoring kicks off this week! Hundreds of teen tutors, reading coaches, and teachers have hit the ground running, each one of them focused on helping elementary students achieve grade-level reading proficiency.
However, in order for the Literacy Tutoring program to work effectively, successful completion of our intensive training program is essential. Multiple sessions of the two-day READ USA Literacy Tutoring training, now part of the Michael Ward & Jennifer Glock Literacy Institute, occurred on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays during August, with two more days scheduled for Sept. 7 and 8.
During training, teen tutors learn everything from reading and phonics lesson structure and implementation, to instructional best practices, to how to sustain student focus and engagement. Our one-to-one tutoring model also cultivates social-emotional skills in elementary students and teen tutors, promoting mental and emotional wellness, safety, and inclusion.
Fun Fact: As part of the program, teen tutors are required to input a daily entry into their Tutor Journals. Tutor Journals provide a way for tutors to reflect on themselves and their students, while giving teachers and reading coaches insight into how they can provide more targeted support to tutors during tutoring – and also celebrate their accomplishments! At the end of the semester, there will be thousands of journal entries documenting the exceptional progress being made, all while building teen tutors’ skills and confidence.
We are so excited to see all that our amazing teen tutors, teachers, and elementary students accomplish this semester! Stay tuned!
Children’s Book: A Computer Called Katherine by Suzanne Slade
Illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison
National Women’s Equality Day, observed annually in the United States on August 26, marks the adoption of the 19th amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote. This year’s theme is “Equality starts with empowered women,” which highlights the importance of fostering wellbeing and resilience of women in the workplace and society.
The book A Computer Called Katherine is a wonderful biography written to honor a woman who overcame insurmountable odds to persist and succeed at reaching her goals.
Throughout this compellingly told biography, the narrator compares social wrongs to miscalculated math problems, as in the belief that, “women could only be teachers or nurses. Katherine knew that was wrong—as wrong as 10 – 5 = 3.” She also objected to segregation and to her exclusion from meetings at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory that had only ever been attended by men.
She proved everyone wrong by zooming ahead of her classmates, starting college at 15, and eventually joining NASA, where her calculations helped pioneer America's first manned flight into space, its first manned orbit of Earth, and the world’s first trip to the moon! Because she broke barriers that sought to limit her abilities, Katherine stands as an important example of persisting to make change. Illustrator Jamison beautifully conveys in illuminating watercolors both how much Katherine enjoyed numbers and how determined she was to succeed in a male-dominated field.
Submitted by Kathi Hart, Tutoring Program Content Specialist
Parent Education Corner: Using Novel and Interesting Words
We are continuing our topic on creating a language-rich environment for your child. This week our focus is on using novel and interesting words.
Novel words are new and rich vocabulary words that build children’s language. For example, you can use the word “enormous” instead of big or “considerate” instead of nice. Children can learn big, new, and interesting words through repeated exposure and concrete explorations of what they mean. Sharing a new word with your child doesn’t have to take a long time: just a few minutes to talk about the word and then focus back on the book or the conversation.
When introducing new words to your young learner, keep the following helpful hints in mind:
- Talk and read with your child
Conversations and questions about interesting words (“The book says, ‘The boy tumbled down the hill,’ and look at the picture! How do you think he went down the hill?”) are easy, non-threatening ways to get new words into everyday talk.
- Provide a simple, kid-friendly definition of the new word
Enormous means that something is really, really big.
- Provide a simple, kid-friendly example that makes sense within their daily life
Remember that really big watermelon we got at the grocery store? That was an enormous watermelon!
- Encourage your child to develop their own example
What enormous thing can you think of? Can you think of something really big that you saw today? That’s right! The bulldozer near the park was enormous! Those tires were huge.
- Keep your new words active within your house
Over the next few days and weeks, take advantage of opportunities to use each new vocabulary word in conversation.
Teaching your child about language and literacy can be a fun family experience. By adding a few of these tips to your daily routine, you can make a significant difference in your child’s learning.
Submitted by Kathi Hart, READ USA Content Specialist
Do you have any questions or ideas for the Parent Education Corner? Anything you’d like to learn? Let us know here!