2018 Literacyworks Lecture Series
ROBERT REICH IN CONVERSATION WITH LYNN WOOLSEY
Sunday April 8, 2018, 4:00-5:30PM
Petaluma Veterans Memorial Hall, 1094 Petaluma Blvd South, Petaluma
Robert Bernard Reich is an American political commentator, professor, and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. He was Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997. His new book, “The Common Good,” is focused on why we must restore the idea of the common good to the center of our economics and politics. Congresswoman Lynn C. Woolsey is a former U.S. Representative for California's 6th congressional district serving Marin County and Sonoma County from 1993 to 2013.
Purchase Tickets Here: https://www.copperfieldsbooks.com/event/literacyworks-copperfields-books-present-robert-b-reich-lynn-woolsey-conversation
GREG SARRIS
Sunday May 6, 2018, Copperfield's Books Petaluma Store, 4:00PM
Greg Sarris is an author, screenwriter, producer, scholar, professor and Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria. His most recent book, which will be featured at the lecture, is “How a Mountain Was Made: Stories.”
DANIEL ELLSBERG IN CONVERSATION WITH PETER COYOTE
Sunday June 10, 2018, 4:00-5:30PM
Petaluma Veterans Memorial Hall, 1094 Petaluma Blvd South, Petaluma
Daniel Ellsberg is an American activist and former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. His new book, “The Doomsday Machine,” is an eyewitness expose of the dangers of America’s top secret, seventy-year-long nuclear policy that continues to this day. Peter Coyote is an accomplished actor, author, director, screenwriter and Emmy award narrator.
ISABEL ALLENDE IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL KRASNY
July 2018 (tentative date), Carole L. Ellis Auditorium, Petaluma SRJC campus
Chilean author Isabel Allende won worldwide acclaim when her bestselling first novel, "The House of the Spirits", was published in 1982. Since then, she has written 22 more works. Allende’s books, all written in her native Spanish, have been translated into 35 languages and have sold nearly 70 million copies. Michael Krasny is the host of KQED’s “Forum” program as well as a renowned author and educator.
Go to http://www.literacyworks.org/events for the latest speaker list.
We are growing the Literacyworks Parents as First Teachers: Engaging Families to Increase Children's Literacy program by partnering with Petaluma People services, the SRJC Robert A. Call Child Development Center, and the Sonoma County Library Petaluma branch to work with low-literacy, low-income bilingual parents and children by training parents in the basic skills to encourage their children to become avid readers and writers. Our workshops are helping parents view their parenting role in a positive manner, have appropriate expectations of their children's achievements, prepare their children with the necessary skills to be successful in school, and establish and maintain positive relations with community resources, including libraries, schools, and community groups. For more information go to www.literacyworks.org.
In an effort to better serve Center students, staff has introduced a new program component. We will meet each student individually with a list of questions intended to deepen our understanding of the challenges, obstacles and opportunities facing the student. Our goal is to assist them in taking full advantage of the considerable support services available at Santa Rosa Junior College. The further aim of this effort is to collect data that will allow the Center to do an analysis of the program's effectiveness. Literacyworks Center is a demonstration project that could be replicated at other Community Colleges.
The Center’s mission is to assist individuals with low literacy and who are low income get into college, and then support them in realizing their personal and professional goals. Now in our fourth year, our students have improved their academic skills and have gain confidence in their abilities. The persistence rate of the program is 90% which is higher than the norm. This means we have had the privilege watching our students take on the greater academic challenge of a traditional college curriculum.
One of our students is quoted as saying: "“Thank you for helping me and giving me this opportunity to continue my educational goal. This really helps me and encourages me to keep going. As a first generation Mexican-American student, and a low-income family man, it is really difficult for my mother and I to survive in this world. This program has changed my life and has impacted it in many positive ways. I am blessed and I promise I will not let you guys down. Thank You!”
