{"id":60352,"date":"2015-02-06T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=60352"},"modified":"2015-02-05T19:06:55","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T00:06:55","slug":"literacy-program-high-school-grad-finds-a-new-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=60352","title":{"rendered":"Literacy Program High School Grad Finds a New Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rob<\/a>Library Literacy Coordinator Donna Bocketti congratulates\u00a0Robert M. Barry\u00a0on earning his high school equivalency through the NYS TASC exam (formerly GED) program at Madison County Reads Ahead. (Photo by Carla Zimmerman)<\/em><\/p>\n

Submitted by Cindy McCall, Cazenovia Public Library Literacy Outreach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Madison County, NY \u2013 Feb. 2015) Literacy student Rob Barry has some words of advice for those who need to get their high school equivalency (HSE):\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cGet going now.\u00a0 You never know when that opportunity comes up to get a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through his girlfriend, Barry heard about adult education programs at Sullivan Free Library and contacted literacy coordinator Donna Bocketti.\u00a0 At the time he was applying for a position at a utility company in Syracuse.<\/p>\n

Sullivan Free Library\u2019s literacy programs are run by Madison County Reads Ahead, which offers instruction at seven local libraries in Madison County.\u00a0 Learners work one-on-one with trained volunteer tutors at flexible times that suit their schedules.\u00a0 Tutoring programs are learner-centered, and can especially help students who find they don\u2019t get enough attention in a classroom setting.<\/p>\n

When Rob Barry was growing up, he attended three different school districts.\u00a0 Barry knew how to work hard and always had a job.\u00a0 When he was 14, he worked on a farm every day while attending school.\u00a0 He completed 10th<\/sup> grade at Chittenango High School, but found he had to support himself.\u00a0\u00a0 He left high school to work\u00a0for a fence company.<\/p>\n

After the fence company, Barry began working as a mechanic.\u00a0He started out in the parts department but soon began to expand his skills to vehicle maintenance.\u00a0 When the opportunity arose to apply for a mechanic job at a large local utility company, he knew it was just the challenge he was looking for.\u00a0 He had the skills and the company was prepared to hire him until they realized he lacked a high school diploma.<\/p>\n

Barry began studying for his high school equivalency (HSE) in March 2014. \u00a0With the help of tutor Donna Bocketti, he took the TASC exam at Syracuse Educational Opportunity Center in May 2014.\u00a0 It took New York State several months to score his exam, but when the results arrived from Albany in September, he saw he had passed.\u00a0 With his HSE in hand, he was hired by the utility company and is now a full time employee with benefits and a new career.<\/p>\n

Before he began working with a tutor, Barry said he was afraid to take the exam and had no idea how to prepare for it.\u00a0 The program gave him the skills and encouragement he needed to succeed.\u00a0\u00a0Madison County Reads Ahead gave him the opportunity he said, \u201cto do the best I could to up my chance to pass the exam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Literacy programs all over the state have made the transition from GED programs, in which New York State no longer participates, to the new TASC (HSE) exams.\u00a0 Madison County Reads Ahead\u2019s HSE programs are free of charge and open to adults over the age of 18 who are able to meet weekly for tutoring.<\/p>\n

For more information about library HSE programs and the New York State TASC exam, please call Tara Truett, Program Director at Madison County Reads Ahead, at\u00a0315-345-1468.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Library Literacy Coordinator Donna Bocketti congratulates\u00a0Robert M. Barry\u00a0on earning his high school equivalency through the NYS TASC exam (formerly GED) program at Madison County Reads Ahead. (Photo by Carla Zimmerman) Submitted by Cindy McCall, Cazenovia Public Library Literacy Outreach (Madison County, NY \u2013 Feb. 2015) Literacy student Rob Barry has some words of advice for […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[65,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libraries","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-fHq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60352","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=60352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}