GED Prep Among Coworkers

This month, Jeff Rees and Norma Lopez will be celebrating their fourth year of partnering together on literacy. Norma, a native of Mexico, came to the Literacy Center in April 2013 to improve her English reading and speaking skills. Since that time, Jeff and Norma have made it through book four in the Harry Potter series and are now working together to help Norma study for her GED. Lately, their weekly tutoring sessions are almost entirely focused on GED preparation. They recently celebrated Norma passing the Social Studies portion of the test. Kate Law, their Literacy Coordinator, writes, “Jeff really understands that reading should be fun and engaging in order for learning to take place.”

In a unique turn of events, Jeff and Norma are now coworkers. Jeff helped Norma apply for and get a job at his company, Ranir. Jeff works as senior manufacturing engineer and Norma as an assembly line worker, which allows them to draw on this shared experience during tutoring sessions. As Kate says, “it is obvious when speaking with the two of them that they will be friends for life.”