Literacy Committee
George Packer and Askold Melnyczuk stand in
front of the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in
Dorchester, where they volunteer with PEN NE's
Literacy Committee.
The Literacy Committee works to increase literacy in the Boston area. It has established a Writing Center in the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester for PEN writers to assist students in writing personal essays and research papers. PEN NE also collaborates with WriteBoston by bringing writers to Boston schools to talk about the writing life and the process of writing. At the annual Reach Out & Read Book Fair, PEN NE volunteers give hundreds of free books to neighborhood and homeless shelter children. Volunteers also visit local shelters and homeless centers for story-telling and book-making. In collaboration with the PEN American Center Readers & Writers program, we place New England writers in schools and centers with underserved populations. The authors, whose experience and ethnicity represent the population they serve, talk about their published work with the students in hopes that books and reading will change students' lives.
The Writing Center Is the Place to Be
Peggy Spencer, English teacher at the Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester, says she knew that the PEN New England Writing Center program had become an institution when students started coming into her class the first day of September looking for the sign-up sheet. "Seniors were telling juniors about it. Brothers were telling sisters about it. Kids who came back from college were telling me how much it helped them."
The program was launched shortly after the Burke lost its accreditation in 1995. PEN NE members George Packer and Askold Melnyczuk contacted the school to see how they could provide help and developed a program that has evolved from assisting teachers in the classroom to forming a separate Writing Center in the library. Today eight PEN tutors (David Ruben, Suzanne Berger, Nathaniel Beyer, Susan Monsky, Naomi Myrvaagnes, Joan FitzGerald Denny, Lynda Morgenroth, and Jan Brogan) provide one-on-one help to about a hundred students over the course of the year.
The program began with simply helping seniors write a personal essay, which became a requirement for seniors to graduate. Later, the curriculum expanded to include help on college essays in the fall and a research paper in the spring. "It's the personal, one-on-one experience that makes all the difference," says Spencer. "It goes beyond teaching kids about an introduction, thesis statement,and conclusion. Kids find out that what they have to say is valued, that they have a story to tell, too."
Many of the students come from different countries, and English is their second language. "I love the fortitude and tenacity of these students who are really working hard at something and who keep coming back every week," says Berger, who has been volunteering for five years. "I leave on Wednesday invigorated."
Ruben, who coordinates the tutoring program with Berger, says that the experience goes well beyond having to think about and explain what makes a good sentence or a good paragraph. "On the surface, it might seem like a one-way street, but it1s definitely a two-way street," he says. "Almost unfailingly, the kids are interesting, engaging, and rewarding to work with." Spencer praises both the generosity and the dedication of the PEN tutors. "When we lost our accreditation, we got a lot of different promises about getting help," says Spencer. "But through the years, what has stayed with us is PEN, returning year after year."
If you are interested in being a PEN NE Literacy Committee volunteer at the Writing Center, the Reach Out & Read Book Fair, or a Boston-area shelter, please contact us.