{"id":44199,"date":"2013-04-01T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=44199"},"modified":"2013-04-01T13:30:27","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T17:30:27","slug":"literacy-student-and-volunteer-earns-ged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=44199","title":{"rendered":"Literacy Student and Volunteer Earns GED"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pictured are Cazenovia Library Literacy GED grad Becky Phillips with her sons Damian and Ryan.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cazenovia Public Library News<\/p>\n

By Cindy McCall<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cazenovia, NY – March 2013\"Becky+Phillips+and+sons\"<\/a>) Cap and gown, balloons and cake, congratulations and lots of photo-taking:\u00a0 the party looked like many other graduation celebrations.\u00a0 However, the gathering held recently at CazCares Food Pantry was not the usual high school graduation party.<\/p>\n

Cazenovia Library staff, CazCares staff and volunteers, Board members, fellow literacy volunteers, friends and family all turned up to cheer the achievements of Cazenovia resident Becky Phillips, who recently earned her GED (high school equivalency) through the Cazenovia Public Library Literacy GED program.<\/p>\n

Phillips is a familiar face at Cazenovia Public Library, where she and her children are regular patrons of library programs and services. \u00a0\u00a0In addition, the family was often in attendance at library-run literacy programs at CazCares, where Phillips worked as a volunteer at Cazenovia Library\u2019s early literacy program, the Story Room at CazCares.<\/p>\n

As part of the CazCares celebration, Library Director Betsy Kennedy presented Phillips with a letter of thanks for her many hours of volunteer service.<\/p>\n

Phillips enrolled in the GED program last fall with the help of Literacy Coordinators Carla Zimmerman and Cindy McCall. \u00a0\u00a0Phillips felt the time was right to get her GED and find a job, as her children were getting old enough to be more independent. \u00a0\u00a0Throughout her months of study and tutoring, she still managed to maintain her volunteer hours at the Story Room.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecky is exceptionally good with both children and parents,\u201d said literacy coordinator Carla Zimmerman.\u00a0 \u201cAs a drop-in program with a monthly attendance of more than sixty preschool children during the school year, we always need volunteer help.\u00a0 Becky has been one of our most capable and dependable volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mother of four children, Phillips had been out of school for 14 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sure it would take me a long time to get ready for the GED,\u201d Phillips said.\u00a0 However she and her Cazenovia Library tutor, Julie MacWilliams, found that they could cover the groundwork for the GED in three months.<\/p>\n

“Becky is an avid reader,” said MacWilliams.\u00a0\u201cReading has expanded her life experience and allowed her to succeed very quickly as a student and rapidly reach her academic goals.”<\/p>\n

MacWilliams began tutoring for library GED programs after training to be a literacy volunteer through Madison County Reads Ahead.\u00a0\u00a0Cazenovia is one of eight public libraries in the Mid-York system that offers free adult literacy programs, including GED tutoring.<\/p>\n

In addition to GED, library programs provide tutoring services in Adult Basic Education and ESOL.\u00a0\u00a0Cazenovia Library Literacy is unique among Madison County libraries in that\u00a0educational programs\u00a0are offered not only\u00a0on-site at the library but also at two satellite locations, CazCares Food\u00a0Pantry and New Woodstock Public Library.<\/p>\n

Phillips lost no time between earning her GED and finding employment.\u00a0 She found a job as a full-time nursing care assistant, and plans to continue her education in the health care field.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecky will reach any goal she sets for herself,\u201d said Gigi Redmond, CazCares Director.\u00a0 \u201cWe are proud to be a small part of her success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Library literacy programs are always open to new learners.\u00a0 For more information about GED programs, please call Cazenovia Public Library Literacy at 655-9322.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pictured are Cazenovia Library Literacy GED grad Becky Phillips with her sons Damian and Ryan. Cazenovia Public Library News By Cindy McCall (Cazenovia, NY – March 2013) Cap and gown, balloons and cake, congratulations and lots of photo-taking:\u00a0 the party looked like many other graduation celebrations.\u00a0 However, the gathering held recently at CazCares Food Pantry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[65],"tags":[23387,3291,3444,3472,23389,8199,23388],"class_list":["post-44199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libraries","tag-becky-phillips","tag-cazcares-food-pantry","tag-cazenovia-ny-news","tag-cazenovia-public-library","tag-cazenovia-public-library-literacy-ged-program","tag-gigi-redmond","tag-julie-macwilliams"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-buT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}