Pope County Literacy Council

Julieta Marrufo

In December 2005, Julieta Marrufo Arias walked into our office wanting help speaking English. Julieta is a Hispanic wife and mother of two. She works full-time at the local Tyson plant. She initially came in just wanting help with conversational English, but as we got started, we discovered the she was also interested in becoming a U.S. citizen. Julieta was very faithful and attended every week; she worked through both U.S. Citizen Workbooks and the Interview manual. One year and two months later, she has take the Citizenship test and passed it with flying colors. Yes, she is now a U.S. citizen! 

We have now started testing for her GED; her ultimate goal is to take some classes at the local community college in order to become a nurse. She will succeed. She is focused, and our literacy council is providing her with all the tools she needs to make her dream a reality.

Mecca Osburn

The local Dollar General Store referred Mecca Osburn to our council. She filled out information at the store asking for help learning to read. This request was sent to us by ProLiteracy America. Mecca began working with her tutor in September 2005. When she came to our council she was having a difficult time personally and really wanted to increase her reading abilities so that she could read to her children and pass her GED. 

Mecca was tested and she was reading at the beginning of the third grade. Her progress has been really slow. She struggles with a learning disability that prevents her from retaining information. She has attended tutoring sessions without missing one in almost two years. Our council feels that this alone is an achievement. She has tested out now at the end of third grade. This has been a hard-fought victory and we are very proud of her.

Brenda Black

In March of 2001, Brenda Black came to our council in hopes that we could help her learn to read more fluently. She had received a high school diploma due to the fact that during her school years she attended special education classes. Brenda was working at a local manufacturing plant and wanted to be able to read the newspaper and books. At that time she could only read small words and short sentences. She tested at a first grade level. Brenda worked hard and never took a break. She progressed to the third grade level in 2002 - 2003, maintained that grade level in 2004, in 2005 –2006 she increased to a fourth grade level, and since 2007 reached the fifth grade level. Brenda wants to earn a specialized certificate to be able to work in an office.

Alejandra Quintanilla

Alejandra Quintanilla came to our council on January 17, 2006. At first, Alejandra’s husband came to our council after a friend told him about our free tutoring. He encouraged Alejandra to come and work with a tutor to increase her English speaking abilities. Alejandra is from Mexico and has already earned a degree from a technical school in secretarial work. She really wanted to work on her pronunciation and speaking skills. Over the last two years, she has worked with the same tutor on Monday evenings after work. She decided to not only work on her speaking abilities, but to begin to study for her General Education Degree. That way she could leave her production job and work in an office again. Last year, Alejandra became pregnant with her third child and continued to work with her tutor until she gave birth. Even after the baby was old enough, she came back for tutoring and studying for her GED. Alejandra would leave her baby in the office with our staff and go into our tutoring room to study for her GED. And on March 27, 2008, Alejandra Quintanilla passed her GED. She is making plans to attend University of Arkansas Community College in Morrilton.