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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1987)
Tuesday, February 3, \9Q7FThe Battalion/Page 3 State and Local Tutors fighting high rate f illiteracy in vicinity a nest .celle:] e. Bui mswerj in iht| : theiiS letsas:! “world I ff you; I blic. i sa usei'ii even I lemyaJ hat in :antfi« rityof I we meihiM Id War By Suna Purser Reporter I If you’re reading this story, con sider yourself lucky. I At least 20 percent of Brazos Val ley residents are illiterate — 5 per cent above the national average — says Margaret Scott, coordinator of the Brazos Valley Adult Literacy Council. And she says the actual illiteracy rate may be as high as one in three ople. Scott, an interdisciplinary educa tion graduate student at Texas A&M, is responsible for overseeing the group’s programs by matching students with tutors and conducting tutor workshops. I “We recruit tutors by placing ads on television and radio, in newspa- pt i s and by getting referrals from clubs and organizations,” she said. “Volunteers range from profession als to housewives and students. Most are reading enthusiasts and are very anxious to get involved.” I Volunteers fill out a one-page ap- p ication which asks questions about their availability for tutoring and their special skills, such as knowing a second language or having experi ence with handicapped people. BShe keeps a list of volunteers and announces a tutoring workshop when several names have been gath- 'et ed. ■ Workshops, which usually are held on Saturdays and last about three hours, take place every two to three months, she said. ■ “We trained 40 volunteers on Jan. 24,’’ she said. “Since September of last year, we’ve had 200 volunteers.” ■ During the tutor training, volun teers are told about an “undereduca ted” person’s anxieties about not be ing able to read. Then, various approaches to teaching reading are explained, she said. ■The council uses three methods of teaching. In the “language experien ce” method, a student talks about a familiar subject, and the tutor writes itpown in the student’s exact words. Together, the student and the tu tor read what’s been written three times, and then the student reads it back to the tutor. Since the student’s own words and experiences are fa miliar, word recognition is im proved, she said. “Sight reading” involves making flash cards of common words such as “the” or “and.” Students begin to recognize words by sight with this method, she said. The third practice uses phonics, by teaching students the usual sounds of letters or groups of letters, she said. T he program is designed for indi vidual instruction, she said. Students set their own goals and pace, and are free to stay in the program as long as they want. Students range in age from 18 to 75, with personal goals just as wide. Some want to pursue an education while others want to be able to sign a check in the grocery store, she said. “The majority are in the 20 to 30 age range,” Scott said. “Many have a high school diploma, are unem ployed, married, and have a family. “People are scared to death. They’re either forced to come, in or der to compete in the job market, or they come out of desperation so they can keep the job they have.” Students and tutors meet twice a week for an hour at a private loca tion Scott selects, and the meeting is run in a strict, confidential manner. There is no contact between student and tutor outside the classroom, she said. “Right now, there is a big pickup in the number of students, probably due to the program’s publicity,” she said. “We have 55 student-tutor pairs working now.” Even with increased student en rollment, there still are many people who are not coming to the literacy council for help, Scott said. “Lots of people are very reluctant to admit they can’t read and there’s really nothing we can do to get them here,” she said. Jerrilynn Williams, associate city librarian of the Bryan Public Li brary, cited the program’s growth as an example of its success. “During the first year,” Williams said, “we had a student-tutor goal of five, and we had 21 at the end of the year.” Williams, who wrote the proposal outlining the council’s goals in 1984, agreed about the need to attract all people who are undereducated. “We have a lot more steps and the road is long,” she said. “But we’ll make it.” The literacy council was formed as a non-profit organization in 1984 with a $5,000 grant from the Texas State Library Association, Scott said. The group’s major funding cur rently comes from the Bryan-Col- lege Station Service League, which made a $12,500 donation in 1986. Silver Taps to remember 10 The solemn sound of buglers playing “Taps” and the sharp ring of gunfire will be heard on campus tonight as 10 Texas A&M students who died over the past three months are honored in the Silver Taps ceremony at 10:30 in front of the Academic Building. The deceased students being honored are: • Linden Ruth Kauffman-Li- nam, 34, a graduate student in oceanography from El Paso who died Nov. 25. • Jeff David Buskirk, 22, a ju nior finance major from Houston who died Nov. 25. • Celina E. Choto-Owen, 31, a graduate student in food science and technology from College Sta tion who died Dec. 19. • Stephen Charles Ward, 19, a freshman electrical engineering- major from Houston who died in December. • Robert Dawson Dubuisson, 23, a senior business administra tion major from Houston who died Jan. 4. • William Craig Martin, 37, a graduate student in electrical en gineering from Bryan who died Jan. 9. • Kevin Frank Boeck, 21, a se nior agricultural economics ma jor from Fredericksburg who diedjan. 17. • Mark Werner Eberle, 20, a junior business administration major from Fredericksburg who diedjan. 17. • Gregory Allen Treibs, 22, a senior medical science major from Fredericksburg who died Jan. 23. • Darrin Montgomery flesner, 21, a freshman medical science major from New Waverly who diedjan. 25. Dating back almost a century, the stately tradition of Silver Taps is practiced on the first Tuesday of each month from September through April, whenever nec essary. The names of the de ceased students are posted at the base of the flag pole in front of the Academic Building, and the flag is at half-mast the day of the ceremony. Lights will be extinguished and the campus hushed as Aggies pay final tribute to fellow Aggies. The Ross Volunteer Firing Squad begins the ceremony, marching in slow cadence toward the statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross. Shortly after, three volleys are fired in a 21-gun salute and six buglers play a special arrange ment of “Taps” three times — to the north, south and west. Family discussion urged by officials Organ donation still taboo topic By Jessica Brown Reporter Organ donation is a subject that does not present itself often at cock tail parties or the dinner table. However, only through outward expression of the wish to donate will a person’s organs live on, a local hos pital official said. Family discussion of donation is stressed by Millie Patterson, St. Jo seph Hospital’s emergency room head nurse and head coordinator of tissue donation. “If the public deals with the prob lem now,” Patterson said, “it will not be so devastating when the time comes.” Patterson said the easiest part of organ donation is the actual retrieval when the victim is declared brain- dead, while the hardest part is talk ing to the victim’s family. She said signing the back of one’s driver’s license does not guarantee that specified body parts will be used. Organs and tissues will not be col lected if the family does not consent to the donation. Therefore, through such a dis- non-profit organization which issues to each member a card to be carried with the driver’s license, she said. The card has information vital to organ and tissue donation and en ables immediate donation of usable “In the emergency room, there isn’t enough time to really sit down with the family because of the narrow time limit that we work by in collecting the organs. ” — Millie Patterson of St. Joseph Hospital cussion, family members will know they are fulfilling the wishes of the deceased, she said. “In the emergency room, there isn’t enough time to really sit down with the family because of the nar row time limit that we work by in col lecting the organs,” she said. One way to ensure donation is to join The Living Bank in Houston, a organs if the carrier is involved in a fatal accident. Dawn Seery, St. Joseph Hospital’s intensive care unit head nurse and organ coordinator, acknowledged the benefits of membership in the organization. “The card issued by The Living Bank takes a very heavy load off the family at a sad time, and it is one less decision the family has to make at a trying time,” she said. Prominent members of the orga nization include George Bush, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby). Membership information can be obtained by writing The Living Bank, P.O. Box 6725, Houston, Tx. 77265 or calling 1-800-528-2971. The need to sign the back of the driver’s license or to become a mem ber of The Living Bank may become less significant in a few years, Patter son said. Without either document, she said, organs can be made available by legally forcing hospitals to ques tion survivors. While some automat ically do so already, many do not, she said. The Texas Legislature will con sider a bill this year requiring hospi tals to ask the families of the de ceased for the consent to harvest usable organs and tissues, she said. llybe vho acticeSi on the :nt unique striving hing- ice he c ins l CAREER FAIR 1987 ireseiU that chest lerciai* i steak' /an 0(1^ write /erl# *ent m, , out ye" 1 mud 1 tudettu ndatif Co¥ jcou atus" 1 it take idiug Ninth Annual MBA/MS Association Case Competion Four teams will be analyzing O.l. Cor poration in College Station. The pre sentations will be judged by a panel of prominent business leaders. The competition winners will go on to com pete in the Mid-South Case Competi tion at the University of Mississippi. The 1986 winners were bracketed winners at the Mid-South Competi tion. The MBA/MS Association is an ticipating another victory at Ole Miss. For more information, contact Dave Struble 696-2933. Wednesday, Feb. 4 9:00 Judge Orientation 9:30-10:30 Team 1 Presentation 10:45-11:45 Team 2 Presentation 11:45-12:00 Judge Consultation 12:00-2:00 Lunch 2:00-3:00 Team 3 Presentation 3:15-4:15 Team 4 Presentation 4:15-5:15 Judge Consultation 5:15-6:30 Reception & Award Presentation Business Career Fair 1987 Corporate Booths American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers Arthur Andersen Becker CPA Review Boeing Computer Services CARGO USA Crate & Barrel! Deloitte, Haskins & Sells ENRON EXXON FBI FDIC Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. Sunbelt Nursery Group Trinity University Health Care Admin. Walgreen Company Wallace Computing Services White Petrov McHone Brookshire Grocery Co. CONOCO NAP DOW Chemical, Marketing DOW Chemical, Comptroller Ernest & Whinney Peterson & Co. Seidman & Seidman Tennessee Gas Transmission Co. Tennecco Oil Touche Ross MOBIL Oil Company CompuServe Lockheed Missies and Space Quaker Oats Shelby, Rucksdashel & Jones, CPAs Business & Professional Advertising Assoc. Davis, Duff, Trometer, CPAs Comptroller of Public Accounts PENNZOIL ARCO XEROX Southland 7-Eleven Price Waterhouse Coopers & Lybrand CONOCO PPNA International Business Symposium Schedule The purpose of the International Business Symposium is to offer extensive coverage of Interna tional business in the four major economic regions of the world. This is the first year that an Inter national Business Symposium has been offered during Career Fair and is sponsored by the In ternational Business Association. All students from all colleges are welcome to attend. The schedule for Wednesday, Feb. 4th is as follows: 11 Latin America Bloc 120 3-4 Reception MBA Lounge, Bloc 316 4:30-5:45 Japanese External Trade Org. Bloc 156