Lincoln Park Tutors Honored for Work with Adult Learners

Michael Sacco and Mary Uhing, adult literacy tutors at the Anixter Center Jack Ehrlich Literacy Program located at 2001 N. Clybourn Ave. in Chicago, were honored with Outstanding Tutor awards on April 18, 2015 at the 24th Annual On the Road to Literacy Conference. The awards were presented by Literacy Volunteers of Illinois and the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Literacy.

In nominating Michael for the award, Leslie Kartali of the Anixter Center Jack Ehrlich Literacy Program said, “Michael is innovative, patient and effective at getting students to focus and work hard during their sessions. His teaching methods are always flexible and changing because he wants to keep his learner’s interest up. One of Michael’s students expresses interest about current events and has a lot of ideas and opinions, and Michael would help him organize and express his thoughts better. After Michael pushed him to improve on his reading and writing skills, this learner went up half a grade level in just 6 months.”

In nominating Mary, Leslie said, “Mary has made a tremendous difference to her learner’s quality of life. As one of the most consistent tutors at Anixter Center, Mary has contributed 6½ years to the program and 410 service hours over the years. Because her learner’s goals are directly correlated to her everyday life, Mary utilizes a variety of strategies with her learner that includes structured classroom sessions, and also flexible “field trips” like going to the Barnes and Nobels to get books of interest with her learner and having their session in the café area. Through her years with Mary, this learner has accomplished a lot.”

Literacy Volunteers of Illinois (LVI) is an organization that is committed to developing and supporting volunteer literacy programs that help adults, families, and out of school teens increase their literacy skills. LVI offers an AmeriCorps program to individuals interested in serving in literacy programs on a full-time basis, and sponsors the Jump Start program which recruits community volunteers to serve as tutors to incarcerated youth. To learn how to become involved with literacy in your area as a tutor or a student, call 312-857-1582 or visit www.lvillinois.org.