LEE — The Literacy Network of South Berkshire (LitNet) recently announced that Guadalupe Miranda, Claudia Villamil, Viviana Moreno, and Carolina Escobar are the recipients of the Diane Laurin Memorial Fund Scholarship, a grant for LitNet learners established to honor the memory of LitNet Board member and colleague Diane Laurin, who passed away suddenly in 2009. LitNet’s volunteer tutors were asked to nominate learners who fit the scholarship descriptor: learners who demonstrate commitment to their learning goals, to improving their financial stability, and to gaining independence, and who will use the fund to further their educational and civic goals. The $150 award is to be used as the recipient sees fit.
Guadalupe Miranda, who studies English and is working towards United States citizenship with LitNet, worked hard in her home country of El Salvador to obtain a nursing diploma and a bachelor’s degree in Social Work before coming to the U.S. But here, she has had to start over. She is employed as a nurse’s aide at a residential group home, working over 40 hours a week, and taking overtime and covering extra shifts when she can, despite COVID running rampant through her workplace. She has faced racism and even violence as a resident in the Berkshires.
Despite this, said her LitNet tutor Val Coleman, Miranda “remains steadfast in her desire to be a productive and proud citizen of our country.” She has the ability to work hard to achieve her goals, which is why Coleman nominated her as a recipient for the grant. In a letter to LitNet, Miranda declared that she will spend the money to buy books she needs for English classes. She also said, “My future plans includes obtaining my degree as a nurse in this country, but also a vision to help my community in different activities.”
Claudia Villamil will use her award to buy art supplies to work on her paintings and to help her 9-year-old daughter write a children’s book. “I love to learn,” Villamil stated in a letter to LitNet. “Right now, I’m learning how to become an artist and I was lucky to get a gift from LitNet.” Villamil, who worked in the physical therapy department of a hospital in Colombia before coming to the U.S., is studying English at BCC and works cleaning homes. Her LitNet tutor Janice Friedman is inspired by Villamil’s “motivation and dedication to learning.” She said, “Claudia is devoted to her family, gathering them in her home, cooking for them, and taking an intense interest in her daughter’s education. Claudia is very motivated to improve her English and further her studies so she can get a better job and be well-acclimated to her adopted home. She demonstrates curiosity about American life, and clearly wants to learn as much as she can to ensure her success and that of her family.”
Perseverance, desire to learn, and commitment to others are also key traits that motivated LitNet tutor Sandi Kafenbaum to nominate her learner, Viviana Moreno, for the Laurin Fund. Moreno lives with her daughter and is also studying English at BCC while working at Simon’s Rock and helping a friend with her take-out café. She studied business and accounting in Colombia and is hoping to become a paralegal here in the U.S. When possible, she helps other Spanish speakers with their English.
In a note to LitNet, Moreno wrote, “You make adapting to this new country easier” and that the support she has received is “inspiration so I can also help others.”
For Carolina Escobar, the grant was a “generous gesture.” “It was a nice surprise and motivation to continue working to improve this second language that is so important to me,” she wrote to LitNet. Her LitNet tutor Jane Judge cited Escobar’s “can-do spirit and her dedication to mastering the English language” as reasons for nominating her. The two work together each week, reading and reviewing newspaper articles, and Escobar has been keeping a journal about her one-year-old son that she reads to Judge each week. It’s Escobar’s goal to be able to teach in the United States and to give back to her community as she did in Colombia.
“It was such a pleasure to read the nomination letters from tutors and to then hear the sense of gratitude and inspiration from the learner recipients upon receiving these unexpected funds,” said LitNet Executive Director Leigh Doherty. “My guess is Diane Laurin herself would feel very proud to be able to acknowledge such committed people who are on the road to transforming their lives.”
Diane Laurin was the publisher of Laurin Publishing in Pittsfield and throughout her life was involved with several area nonprofits, educational programs, and cultural venues, and was serving on the board of LitNet at the time of her death. Her friends and colleagues at the Literacy Network wanted to keep her memory alive through a program that would coincide with LitNet’s primary mission of helping adults help themselves through literacy, a mission to which Laurin was dedicated.
LitNet is a volunteer-based community organization that for 30 years has been providing free individualized reading, writing, and English language instruction to adult learners, both U.S. and foreign born, in Berkshire County. The mission of LitNet is to transform the lives of adult learners through the power of literacy, education, and advocacy. LitNet believes everyone has the right to access a high-quality education and that a connected community is a stronger community.
