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The long reach of Reach 1

Posted on | June 3, 2009 | 1,733 views |

Literacy and GED readiness program makes dreams possible

By Julia Harris

There’s no doubt about it: Graduation season is in full swing, culminating for Ohio State students on June 14. For many of them, it’s just one more step in a journey they’ve been on since childhood, a right of passage more so than a rite.

For others, the thought of graduating from high school — let alone college — is hard to entertain at all.

It’s for these students that Reach 1, the university’s literacy and GED program, exists. For the past 17 years, the program has been offering university employees, their family members and select community members the opportunity to attend basic skills classes in reading, writing and math and to work toward earning a high school diploma equivalent.

On May 28, four of those students gathered with friends, family and other supporters for a celebration at the Fawcett Center to honor their successful completion of the program and attainment of their GED.

Monice Coats, a laboratory animal technician, was among those who received their diplomas. “It was hard,” she said simply, when asked how she had fared in the Reach 1 program. “The math was definitely the hardest.”

Sitting beside her — and grinning ear to ear with pride — was her supervisor, Phyllis Shade, whom Coats credited with encouraging her to pursue the GED. “I knew a high school education was important for her to move up in her career,” Shade said.

Her smile grew even wider. “We gave her release time for the classes and didn’t even make her make up the time.”

Coats isn’t alone when it comes to having such a supportive boss. Her fellow graduate, Dan McDade, an air quality technician, was also encouraged to take the classes by his supervisor. He completed the program in a little more than a year he says and has plans to pursue additional coursework through the Office of Continuing Education.

For him, writing was the hardest subject. “It was tough, but I knew I needed to better myself,” McDade said.

His determination is mirrored in the eyes of Bruce Ouanlavong, a young father who has a renewed sense of purpose after completing Reach 1. Though he came to the program with only an eighth-grade education, he surged through the classes in a little over a year — and his wife Chanavy Seng only took nine months to pass.

“When you’re a little kid, you’ve got a dream where you want to be something, and then you get older and you start to believe you ain’t really going to make it,” Ouanlavong mused.

“I always thought I couldn’t make it. But now I’m here. I’m currently not working, but I’m studying right now to go into the army. It’s a way for me to do better.”

The success stories of students like McDade, Coats and Ouanlavong are the bread and butter of the Reach 1 program, which prides itself on a flexible, individualized plan of instruction that can be entered —  and left — at any time during the year. Classes are held in 003 Raney Commons Monday through Friday and students may attend on their own time or on work time with supervisor approval.

Currently, there are 35 students on the 2008-09 roster, many of them from outside of Ohio State.

“The people on this roster are at different levels and points along the process,” said Barbara Wookey, who has taught courses for the program for five years but only been its overall coordinator since January.

She also is its sole instructor, teaching four classes a week: Two are GED prep courses, one is Adult Basic Education and one is English as a Second Language.

Each class period lasts one hour and 45 minutes.

Every GED student is required to fill out a learning styles inventory; take placement tests in reading, language and math; and provide a writing sample. Class periods cover basic information required to pass the GED and also include time for students to work on completing curriculum packets.

Additional help comes from a dedicated team of three volunteer tutors, a diverse group comprising an OSU student, a retired faculty and an alumnus of the Reach 1 program.

It’s a special program, Wookey says, and she’s not alone in her opinion: A distinguished guest made an appearance at the start of the graduation celebration and made a few poignant remarks.

“I just wanted to be here today to tell you that, although I will be giving a lot of commencement addresses in the next couple of weeks, no graduation I will attend this year will be more personally powerful than the one I am here with today,” said President Gordon Gee as the graduates’ families, friends, bosses and co-workers looked on.

“I want you to know that you inspire me and I thank you for letting me be here. Congratulations to the graduates.”

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