Asturias Academy Library: Reading for Change

We began the 2012 school year with some exciting news from the Reading for change campaign. We have two new librarians, Nicholas Newlin from Washington, D.C., and Dorita Dominguez from right here in Quetzaltenango. They are both here on grants from Librarians Without Borders, who will be sending a group of volunteers to Quetzaltenango at the beginning of may to volunteer at in the library.

Nicholas is coming off a 8 year stint at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. We feel blessed that he will be sharing his experience gained from working in the largest library in the world. He will surely have some insights that will help us manage our much smaller collection. Nicholas has been working using the skills he developed at the Library of Congress to create a cataloging system for us that will help us organize our collection, which thanks to generous support from our donors has grown to over 2,500 books! He will also be working with Jorge to develop a borrowing system for the library, so that students and their families may check books out of the library and take them hope to read. We will be using funds from the project to make library cards for the students. In addition to giving the students more time to indulge in reading their favorite books, the borrowing system hopes to teach important lessons of accountability that will be integrated with the educational mission at the Colegio.

Dorita has been in charge of developing the lecture program in the library. She reads to students of all ages during their free time, and helps to instill pride and excitement. The lecture program focusing on teaching analytical reading and critical thinking skills that are crucial to the educational development of our students and are consistent with the schools mission of initiating a change in Guatemalan society.

I want to thank everyone who has been supporting the project thus far. We have already been able to acheive so much, and have done so through the mantra that every little bit makes a substantial difference for children at the Colegio and their families. Please continue to support the Reading for Change campaign as we work to expand our collection and instill a thirst for reading in each and everyone of our students. Thank you!!!!!

Sincerely,

Noah Steinberg-Di Stefano

Director of Development

Dear Friends,

It's December and the temperatures in Guatemala are descending and without heating in the houses, the cold at night becomes unbearable, but fortunately it does not snow as in the United States. It is good that the school year is finished, because the afternoons are very windy.

The school year in Guatemala begins in January and ends in October; right now we are on Winter Vacation!! Since classes ended our work has become more administrative. It's really sad not to hear the voices of children and their steps through the corridors. Although the school feels a bit empty at this time, we have had time to do some repairs on our building.

We start by cleaning each of the classes and fix some of the furniture that was in bad condition. Now we are painting the building, this work is very tired and bored. I felt happy to know that, Dora, a teacher who worked with us a few years ago decided to help in our library.  She, unfortunately, has retired but has a grandson is studying with us in first degree.

A few weeks ago, while we were having a rest after a long day of painting, finally I had the opportunity to talk with Dorita. I was impressed by her stories and all the experience she acquired during all of those years teaching. She told me that never, during the whole time she worked with children, saw the passion transmitted by his grandson when he talks about books. She admitted that the passion of his grandson motivated her, along with our ideals, to return and work with us. Although she retired is a person with great enthusiasm and ideas. As we talked she told me that one of the things she was looking forward was to sit in the rocking chair and read to the younger children. I found very interesting that she felt anxious to read to the children, because in Guatemala is not normal for adults to read to children or parents read bedtime stories their children. I am glad to know that we have awakened her interest of reading to her grandson, something she did not do with her children. We hope it becomes a string.

It's really amazing the impact we have on our students and their families. Dora is a wonderful person who has returned to, as she says "put her grain of sand in helping to cultivate the reading culture in our country."

Although we are going to have Dora´s help, excellent as a literacy teacher, she does not have experience as a librarian. She need a little help to learn, therefore we need an experienced librarian to help train this wonderful teacher. We hope in a future to have this help so we can open our doors for the whole community and during vacations. Also we need more books of all kinds for our different readers.

If you have ever felt the desire to help grow a love of reading in our students, financial assistance would be a great opportunity to take another step toward that goal! With just ten dollars that are donated to us is enough to buy a book for our library. As always, thank you for the support you offer us at the Academy, and particularly our students.

Sincerely,