LVCA and TJACE Working Together to Support Adult Learners

Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle and Thomas Jefferson Adult Career Education (TJACE) are proud to partner together to support our shared adult students. We firmly believe that our shared mission, but differing programs, allow us to create a net that supports students in critical ways. 

TJACE's free ESOL, GED, and career-readiness classes provide adult learners with valuable knowledge to further their English and career-goals. The one-to-one approach of LVCA allows additional individualized support for students, especially as they work on credentials. 

Recently, LVCA Communications Coordinator and TJACE instructor, Rebecca Thomas, sat down with Weimin and Amy, two of our shared students and their tutors to find out about how their time at both TJACE and LVCA helped further their goals. 

 

Both Amy and Weimin found out at LVCA through TJACE, and both students recently took on the challenge of obtaining a professional certificate in phlebotomy as a way to find better employment. 

LVCA is often able to pair a student working on certification with a tutor. In Weimin's case, she was able to start working with Susan, a nurse for 48 years. "I have studied ESL 3, 4, 4 Work, Entrapreneurship class [at TJACE]," Weimin said, "but now I am studying phlebotomoy at PVCC [and this] course is a big challenge for me. When I was a college student, my major [was] language, so I have no medical background, so Susan always has been encouraging me. If I have any questions, I always ask her." 

Like Weimin, Amy, too, went to her tutor for additional support during her time in the phlebotomy program. Now that she has passed the program and earned her certificate, she is moving on to the next step: finding a job.

"We’ve been looking at Indeed sites and other job type sites,” Amy's tutor, Maggie said. "It’s been real helpful when we pull up a job’s posting [and go over what all these things mean]. Just to help translate the extra English has been useful.” 

It is this kind of individualized approach that makes LVCA and TJACE's partnership so fruitful. At TJACE, students are able to go to class, work on certification, and find the community that a class environment brings, and they are able to find additional support and a deep relationship with their tutor at LVCA. 

"I think TJACE and LVCA are very important to me and many immigrants," Weimin said, "The two places are the beginning of our American dreams; although, we are adults, we still need to study how to get to know each other and become familiar with our different cultures. The teachers and the staff these two organizations teach us many things besides English skills.... They are all so lovely and so patient."

She continued, "My tutor Susan and the staff of TJACE and LVCA they are all my role models. I have received a lot of help from them. So I one day I hope I will have opportunities to contribute back."

To learn more about Thomas Jefferson Adult Career Education, including opportunities to volunteer, please follow this link. 

 If you are able, please consider supporting our work, with a donation or volunteering. You learn about how you can support students as a Literacy Volunteers' tutor, by following this link.