The center, now in its 20th year of serving K-12 students, and its students are literacy ambassadors, transforming children struggling with reading into lifelong lovers of books and stories. Starting as a six-week program with 10 families, the center has grown rapidly. The success of its 2017 summer program and camp led to 30 ambassadors and 30 families being served in fall 2017.
Reading & writing new stories
“My student ran in and told me that she has been looking forward to this all week,” said Patton College junior Krista Reiff, who, with other ambassadors, develops lesson plans and curriculums for their students. “I look forward to our time together all week as well. I get a chance to make a difference, but I also get to put what I’ve learned in the classroom into practice.” For students, their work as literacy ambassadors also reinforces their connection to the Athens community. “I’m working with a second-grader now, and it is meaningful to me, because my second-grade teacher was the person who instilled my love for reading,” said Patton College senior Autumn Pack. “I have that opportunity to share that now as a teacher. Reading changed my life, and it can change [the lives of] my students.” The Robinson Center for Reading is a warm, welcoming space where technology works handin-hand with well-loved books and children’s and teachers’ imaginations. “We call the [Helen M. Robinson Center for Reading] ‘Aunt Helen’s Tree House’ because we want children to look forward to coming here,” said Francis, PHD ’07 and director of the Robinson Center. “We hear them excitedly saying that they’re going to the tree house. We’re embracing our region, opening our doors, and sharing good stories.” —Colleen Kiphart
Fostering hope Two new books from Ohio University Press peer into the complexities of foster care in Appalachia. In a tangled system overwhelmed by an influx of children whose parents are addicted to opioids, reasons for hope can be scarce. But Deborah Gold’s memoir, Counting Down, and Wendy Welch’s journalistic take, Fall or Fly, offer unvarnished accounts of that most sustaining of human qualities: goodwill. Gold and her husband first fostered a toddler, Michael, now a teenager. Although they only officially fostered him for half a year, the Golds’ relationship with Michael, his siblings, and his extended biological family remains. For Gold, “Goodwill is at the root of our story,” one that began when the children’s mother allowed the Golds to remain in Michael’s and his siblings’ lives after reunification. “She would say, ‘After the kids come back, I want you to stay part of their lives—he’s had so many losses, I don’t want him to have one more,’” Gold says. Gold’s Counting Down shows us how grief and renewal are part of foster care. Importantly, the book includes poems and essays by Michael. “In child welfare, adult voices dominate. I wanted to include [Michael’s writing] because he speaks for a lot of kids,” Gold says. “It gives a voice that you don’t usually hear.” Welch, a former reporter who works in health care, says goodwill starts with setting aside preconceptions and savior complexes. “You don’t need to be a saint, a superhero, or wealthy. You just need to be compassionate and teachable.’” Welch’s Fall or Fly recounts the stories of those who did and didn’t take that to heart—but all contributed to the macro view found in the book: that love, compassion, money, and fear intermingle in the system charged with protecting our nation’s greatest asset. —Samara Rafert is the publicist for Ohio University Press.
OHIO impact
32 33