Maria Lange, program coordinator of Literacy NYCAP, said the exhibition gives the students a sense of purpose for their writing.
“We do the project annually to promote writing to our students, because it tends to be a weakness for a lot of them, especially those who are learning English as a second language,” Lange said. “This gives them a purpose for writing.”
Lange said another purpose of the exhibit is to recognize all the work the program’s tutors and their students put in to be able to achieve their goals.
“For some of them, their goal was to improve their reading and writing, and for others it’s to learn English as their second or third language so they can feel more comfortable in the community,” Lange said.
For this year’s exhibit, students were told to select a photograph that had personal meaning to them and write an essay based on the photo.
“In the past we’ve given them templates and a more specific direction of what to do, but this year we wanted to focus on something more meaningful for them,” Lange explained. “Some of the photos students chose were pictures of their families, or their hometowns abroad—some are even of themselves, because they’re proud of their accomplishments in the U.S.”
Lange said she has found each photo in the exhibit to be “really lovely.”
“The stories that have come out of it have been really wonderful,” Lange added.
One of those stories was about a student’s experience in coming to live in the U.S. The student chose a photograph of her climb up Mount Fuji, and in her essay compared her acclimation to the U.S. to her Mount Fuji climb.
“During her climb, she learned a lot about the importance of persistence, and thought that was relevant to the persistence she needed when she moved to the U.S.,” Lange said.
Lange added that Literacy NYCAP’s tutors deserve a lot of credit for helping the students in their writings for this exhibit.
“Our tutors have been really instrumental in working with the students to enrich their writing for their projects,” Lange said.
Literacy NYCAP features two different basic literacy programs: one is for U.S. citizens who either have had a reading disability or never finished school; the other is for immigrants or new citizens who are learning English as a second language. Literacy NYCAP also offers citizenship classes.
The “Faces and Stories Beyond Words” exhibit opening will take place at 110 Spring Street Gallery in Saratoga Springs April 18 from 6–8 p.m. The exhibit will remain open until May 10. For further details, visit www.literacynycap.org.
