Stockbridge — It was a celebration of education and immigrants as The Literacy Network of South Berkshires held a special event at the Norman Rockwell Museum on Thursday, July 21.
The event honored recipients of the organization’s Keator Family Scholarship for New Americans, along with program participants who have recently been sworn in as United States citizens and Berkshire residents who are in the process of preparing for their exams.
The organization, which was founded in 1991, offers free English language tutoring for residents in and surrounding Berkshire County, along with U.S. citizenship test preparation, adult basic education, and high school equivalency test preparation.
In 2019, the organization launched the Matthew and Hannah Keator Family Scholarship for New Americans, a scholarship program for prospective U.S. citizens funded by the Matthew and Hannah Keator Family Foundation.
As part of the program, recipients receive financial support for legal services during the immigration screening and application process, along with support to offset the costs associated with the federal naturalization application.
Recipients of the scholarship are assigned a tutor from LitNet who works with the applicant to prepare them for naturalization, civics, and literacy exams.
According to a press release by the organization, 19 scholarship recipients have become citizens through the program since 2019, with eight more recipients expected to become citizens this year or early next year.
“I think this program is amazingly important for people who want to become U.S. citizens,” Organization Executive Director Leigh Doherty said. “It costs a lot of money to become an American, so for a lot of people, it’s very difficult. Our program has a great partnership with the Berkshire Immigrant Center, so it smooths out the process.”
Doherty said that the organization has served immigrants from various countries, including Pakistan, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, Ireland, and South Korea.
“The diversity in the Berkshires is incredible,” she said. “What we do is help people achieve a major life-changing goal.”
“Language can be a real barrier to immigrants,” Organization Learner Liaison Miguel Silva said. “If you come to a country and you don’t know the language, that means that your eligibility for jobs is small. You can’t communicate with the teachers who teach your children, or doctors, it’s such a huge barrier. Having an organization that has volunteer tutors to provide help can speed up the process of learning. To have this resource available helps people.”
Melissa Bye, who is one of the tutors for the organization, said that the program is very rewarding for both the students she tutors and for Bye herself.
“This is the American dream for students, and I’m happy to be part of that for them,” Bye said. “Everybody is wonderful and supportive. I’ve volunteered for other organizations, but this is by far the best experience I have had.”
For more information about the Literacy Network of South Berkshire go to its website.
See video from the event below, courtesy of Managing Editor Shaw Israel Izikson.
