(From left to right:   Sacha Gonzalez, Sandra Ramirez, Kelsey Ruch, Peter Giang, Vicctoria Nadig, Ciara Christopher, and Ashley Snyder)

    America Reads is a national program that promotes literacy, and at the local level, an initiative calling on college students to help children learn to read well.  A significant number of Penn State Federal Work Study (FWS) positions have been dedicated to the America Reads effort.  Since its inception in 1997, the America Reads Program at Penn State Lehigh Valley has hired, trained, and placed well over 200 America Reads Reading Partners.  Most recently, during the 2009-10 academic year, Penn State Lehigh Valley had 20 America Reads Reading Partners who were placed in elementary schools and after-school programs in both the Allentown and Bethlehem School Districts; nine America Reads Reading Partners during the fall semester, and eleven during the spring semester.

    Another important aspect of the program includes participation in Read Across America, in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, which is supported by the campus community at-large.  In an effort to expand the chapter's outreach even further, Priscilla Johnson, the Campus Coordinator for the Penn State Lehigh Valley chapter of America Reads, has implemented some additional components to the program:

1. Fall and Spring Reading Programs at local elementary schools in the Lehigh Valley 
2. Fall school supplies drive to support children at local elementary schools and the Sixth Street Shelter in center city Allentown
3. Spring book collection drive to support a local children's charity; a different charity is selected each year
4. "Feed the Mind...Feed the Body" - a food drive to support the Allentown Ecumenical Food Bank, which supplies food to many of the same families/children we serve in our reading partnership programs
5. "Bunnies and Bears" - a stuffed animals drive to support the Bethlehem Fire Department in their efforts to serve the children in their community in the wake of personal disaster

 IMPORTANT CONTACTS

• Mike Hertel, Director of Academic Support msh22@psu.edu 
• Maryann Hubick, Financial Aid Officer at Penn State Lehigh Valley (coordinates the Federal Work Study (FWS) portion of the program) mxh61@psu.edu

• America Reads
  • America Reads Home
  • Calendar of Events
  • Required Documentation