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VALUE Members
Awarded Fellowships
by National Institute for Literacy
(Posted December, 1999)
Two VALUE members were recently awarded Literacy Leader Fellowships by the National Institute for Literacy. NIFL Fellows receive funding for one year which allows them to carry out projects of value to the adult literacy field.
Marty Finsterbusch
One of the VALUE members, Marty Finsterbusch, is well known to advocates
of learner leadership across the nation. Marty is a former literacy student
from the Philadelphia area who rose to become dining services manager
at Villanova University.
For his Fellowship, Marty will do a national survey to see how states are involving adult learners in policy development and program administration. He plans to share his findings with VALUE and others who are looking for new ways to involve learners in decision-making roles.
Marty had a major role in planning VALUE's national Adult Learner Leadership Institute in June 1999 and continues to volunteer on VALUE committees.
Janet Isserlis
The second VALUE member is Janet Isserlis. (She is a "non-learner" member
of VALUE.) Janet is the project director at Literacy Resources/Rhode Island
(the state's literacy resource center).
In her Fellowship, Janet will work with Anson Green of San Antonio, Texas, to develop a sourcebook and curriculum guide which identify barriers blocking women from gaining literacy and employment.
Janet has been very helpful in the development of the VALUE web site.
VALUE Members Who Received Fellowships in the Past
Four other VALUE members have also been awarded NIFL Fellowships in the past:
-- In 1996, VALUE Chair Archie Willard shared a Fellowship with Oregon adult learner Senitila McKinley. They surveyed adult literacy programs nationally to determine how they were getting learners involved in leadership roles.
-- In 1996, David Rosen (who has given tremendous amounts of volunteer time to VALUE) used his Fellowship to study how adult literacy programs use the Internet.
-- Also in 1996, Paul Jurmo (who serves as VALUE's administrator through VALUE's partner organization, Learning Partnerships) used his Fellowship to study how state policy makers were supporting workplace education programs.
-- In 1997, Debby D'Amico examined how adult education can help
people move off welfare and into good jobs.
Other NIFL Support for Research about Learner Leadership
NIFL has also sponsored other Fellowships which deal with learner leadership. These include:
-- Patsy Medina's 1997 study of leadership development activities around the country;
-- Laura Chenven's 1998 look at how learners can serve as leaders in union-sponsored worker education programs.
NIFL has made learner leadership a priority area for the Fellowship program.
Thank you, NIFL!!!!
VALUE thanks NIFL for these Fellowships and for the other support it has given to learner leadership and VALUE.
For more information about NIFL's Fellowship Program, go to http://www.nifl.gov/activities/fllw99pr.htm
Revised 4/28/00