Names of Note: Modesto literacy program honors students from Africa, Latin America
The Literacy Network of Stanislaus County will honor four students and two supporters at its annual awards luncheon Friday, March 6, in Modesto.
The network provides adults with instruction in English as a second language, a High School Equivalency program and other means of helping them toward careers.
The honorees at the 21st annual luncheon, from a network news release:
- Nuria Hernandez will get one of the ESL Awards. She trained to be a technical analyst programmer in El Salvador, then came to the United States in 2016 with her husband and two children. Their first home in Oakland burned down, and they moved to Riverbank. Hernandez earned her high school diploma in Spanish. She then took ESL classes and enrolled at Modesto Junior College, where she is studying business.
- Alejandro Rincon will receive the other ESL Award. He attended a one-room school in Michoacan, Mexico, but could not afford to continue his education. He did heavy manual labor there and in the U.S. after obtaining a green card. He started learning English via Google research and YouTube videos. He is now at MJC.
- Phebe Dennis-Fortt earned the Literacy Award. She left her native Liberia in west Africa in 1989, just before the start of a civil war that killed her parents and other relatives. She later founded Relief Inc., a Modesto-based nonprofit that helps people in her native land. A Modesto Bee story told of her 2014 efforts against Ebola.
- Beverly Hardee will receive the award for students earning high school certificates through LearningQuest. She started while living in her pickup truck with her two sons and graduated in just five weeks. She is studying administration of justice at MJC. Hardee also got the Greatest Achievement Award at the LearningQuest graduation last October.
Ruth Lumen, faculty coordinator for the MJC English for Life and Work Program, will get the Betty Mulnix Service Award. The program has about 300 students in multiple courses each semester in various locations in and near Modesto.
Phil Alfano, superintendent of the Patterson Joint Unified School District, will receive the Jean and Clyde Dunlap Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Literacy. He created the Career Technical Education Pathway at Patterson High School and has promoted various literacy efforts.
The luncheon will be at 11 a.m. at the Petersen Event Center, 720 12th St., Modesto. The $35 tickets can be purchased at celebrateliteracy.eventbrite.com.
Names of Note recognizes people and organizations for their contribution to their communities. Submit items to jholland@modbee.com.
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
