Rediscovering America Reads – Celebrating 20 years

JEP’s USC Readers program began in July of 1997, just a few short months after President Clinton introduced the America Reads Initiative, challenging colleges and universities across the nation to create programs that would meet the dual objectives of addressing the literacy crisis and providing college students with meaningful work opportunities. USC was the first in the nation to meet this challenge with the creation of “USC Readers.”  Two years later, when America Counts was introduced to focus on improving math literacy, we renamed our program “USC Readers^Plus”.

I have directed this special program since its inception. In the early years, I connected with other directors of America Reads programs at conferences and would visit their campuses to compare notes and share best practices.  However, as I recently reflected on 20 years of America Reads, I realized that I had not received communications announcing the Initiative’s upcoming anniversary, or about any networking opportunities.  In fact, it had been several years since the program had even been mentioned at national literacy or service-learning conferences I’ve attended.  Thus, I set out to find a conference this year that would do just that.

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done. Not only was I unable to identify any gathering that addressed America Reads or America Counts, I could not find a webpage of any kind connecting these programs. I was baffled. This is a federally-funded, nationwide program.  How can it be that there is no website providing information about the Initiative, providing direction and resources for those running programs, or even a list of campuses administering these programs with contacts to connect one another?

I consulted with Dick Cone, former Executive Director of JEP, who brought Readers^Plus to USC. He, too, was dismayed by the lack of identity and support for these programs, especially considering that we were embarking upon this milestone year. He encouraged me to do something I had never done – organize a symposium at USC. With the support and encouragement from Dick and Tammy Anderson, our current JEP Executive Director, along with the incredible help from Alyssa Rubio (our Readers^Plus Central Coordinator, a then a junior undergraduate student now in her senior year), and our dedicated tutors who contributed their time to assist, we pulled off a one-day symposium with the participation of 12 other Southern California Universities from two San Diego universities, to UC Riverside and all the way up to UC Santa Barbara. The day consisted of sessions that discussed student recruitment and retention; tutor and leadership staff training; program structure; and funding, with a panel presentation including Paul Dieken, our Senior Associate Director at USC Financial Aid Office  – all issues of concern to program directors.  We concluded our activities with a student panel with representation from four of our 12 engaged campuses (USC, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara,  and Cal State LA).

The response from our post-symposium survey was very positive: 

“It built a connection to other America Reads/Counts programs throughout California.”

“The student panel validated efforts in service-learning and developing young professionals with transferable skills for the work force and/or graduate school.”

“The event provided me with fresh ideas for reinvigorating and, perhaps, expanding our program.”

Based on the overwhelmingly positive response from Southern California universities, I decided to connect with higher education institutions in the northern part of the state. In collaboration with staff from Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service, a second symposium was held on December 8^th with  representatives from seven universities, including Cal State East Bay, University of San Francisco, San Francisco State, University of California Berkeley, University of California Merced, Stanford and USC, as well as California Campus Compact.

Our plan is that continued conversations, connections and celebrations will occur based on the momentum we have started and the realization that many programs have been going strong, with little or no support at the national level, for nearly 20 years. Here’s to 20 more!