Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Peter Conlon]: Welcome to House Education, Thursday, April 16 at 11:15 in the morning. Today is adult education and literacy advocacy day. We have several students and staff related to that who are going to share their stories with us. I think first is going be Brian who's going to start us off. Development and Outreach Director, Central Vermont Adult Education.

[Brian Kravitz]: Good morning, I'm Brian Kravitz. I'm the director of outreach and workforce development at Central Vermont Adult Ed, and I am honored to be here with students from, we have students from Central Vermont Adult Ed and Vermont Adult Learning. This committee has been so incredibly supportive of our students and our work. And I know it's always a pleasure when you get to come in and hear from our students rather than us. And I'm really honored to be able to introduce our students. We intended to have more, but as often happens with adults, lives happen. They have kids, they have jobs. It's a different demographic than the younger students, and as a result, a couple of people were unable to come. It just happens. I do want to say, last week, last Wednesday, I had an informational table down at the co op here in Montpelier, and a woman came and said, she asked about the work. I explained to her what we do, and she said, In Vermont in 2026, there's people who drop out of high school, and there's people who have low literacy. And I said, Yeah. And she said, I thought we'd solved that twenty, twenty five years ago. To which I said, yes, it would be a better world if we'd solved that. And it would be a better world if we weren't needed, like so many other nonprofits, however we are. And I wanna thank you all for your support of our students. It's really meaningful. So our first student to speak is gonna be Rachel.

[Igorito Melo Smith]: Hello. Thank you for having me. My name is Igorito Melo Smith. I live in St. Albans and I study English at Vermont Duttle Learning. I come from Brazil and I don't speak English. I came to The United States because my friend told me there was better work here. In Brazil, I was a professional cook at German history. The job you hear was not good. I came and lived with my brethren friend. She wanted me to care for her child without autism. The worker only paid $100 a week. I eventually got married to an American. He was very abusive. I came to almost shouting Vermont to escape. I learned about English at Vermont to learn. I wanted to learn English. Today I take English with my teacher. I want to learn English for different reasons. Number one, I need a job to pay my bills. Number two, I need freedoms to speak with. Number three, I want to study maybe medicine like radiology or work with animals. Number four, I want to write a book in English and Portuguese about overcoming obstacles and believing in yourself. Some problems I have with English nowhere: Transportation to class. I like to walk but I have problems with the bus. I also need transportation for work. I do not drive. I have no Internet. I cannot afford Internet right now. I cannot take the online class my teacher wants me to. I want and need more class. Right now, it is very limited. I hope that remote learning can help me more in the future to learn more English to drive and to get a good job. Thank you very much for helping Vermont Dutolearning, helping me to get back to work and communication so much better. Thank you.

[Michael Glazic]: Thank you.

[Peter Conlon]: We got Mike.

[Michael Glazic]: Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Hi. We're here to right here, so I'll remind you here too. My name is Michael Glazic and I was born in Massachusetts. I moved here six and a half years ago. And my life growing up was nothing but hell. I had no education. I hardly ever went to school. You know, my dad passed when I was seven, and I could go into graphics, but I'm not going to. My brother commits suicide. I could go to graphics, but I'm not going to. We bounced around from home to home to home to home to home, so I had no plantage. You know what I mean? No school to go to every day on a regular basis, man. We'd always be evicted from this house to this house to this house and living in the bad neighborhoods that we're not supposed to be in. So therefore, I quit school. When I went to school anyways, I wasn't paying attention because I had all these things turn through my loss, my best friend, my father, my brother. My mother never took us to grievance, never. My father was an alcoholic and my mother, so I was raised by alcoholics. And my sister gave me permission to drink when I was eight years old because I'd stay out of the way. I'd go in the room and pass out. So at the age of eight, I started drinking and I'd been drinking for forty eight years. I got sober twelve years ago and I've been sober ever since. I'm smoke free for a year. I went to this program, Hirability, because I had an operation done on my back, which was called for a long time ago, and finally I got it. And I'm a carpenter by trade, so I can't go back to doing what I used to do. So I was kind of forced into changing careers. God works in mysterious ways. He really does. Because I'm one, I like to help people. I really do. I sponsor people in AA. And finally, After going to,

[Peter Conlon]: what's this talking?

[Michael Glazic]: HigherAbility. HigherAbility introduced me to Cesar De Mont, adult education. And because that's what I told him I wanted to do, is I wanted to change careers. Didn't wanna do what I used to do anymore. So she introduced me to this hireability, and I've been there ever since. I work with Ed, Mr. Ed over here. He's a wonderful teacher. He works with me in my disabilities that I have. He knows how to work with them and work around them in order to teach me what he's trying to teach me because I do have disabilities. So I've been there probably a little over a year and a half now. Hopefully by June 30, I could graduate and have a high school diploma. I'd be the only one out of seven out of my family to have them. That was another reason why I wanted to get up. I was having too much fun doing whatever I was doing growing up to pay attention to life. I thought it was fun, but it wasn't. But it's just higher, not higher ability. It's a center for my education, because know education really saved my life. It gave me a different avenue around. It's given me an education. I mean, these things that I'm learning now that I'm 60 years old. Know? Again, you know, too late to learn. But there's, I mean, there's stuff that it's crazy what I learn. You know? And it's all Chinese to me, and it's it just makes sense. You know what I'm saying? After all these years, man, it's interesting. It really is. It's interesting, everything we do. I'm really appreciative of Central Long Adult Education. And if we can keep funding these educational programs, that would be a beautiful thing. Pat, thank you for your time. Thank you. Nice to be here. Thank

[Peter Conlon]: you. Now it's Robertson. Hello,

[Unidentified student (possibly 'Robertson')]: everyone. Hello. My name

[Unidentified student from Venezuela]: is. I'm I'm from Venezuela. I'm rich I'm refugee here in the country. I've I've been living in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Vermont for about one year, seven month. Since I arrived in this country, I understood that learning English was something I have to take on right away. I knew it was essential to move forward, build a better future. And with my community at the beginning, it was not easy. However, I did I didn't give up. While working, I also keep going to class at Vermont Addison Learning. This program along with the support of my teacher, Rebecca, has

[Unidentified student (possibly 'Robertson')]: helped

[Unidentified student from Venezuela]: helped me grow step by step and build up my confidence. Learning English has also helped me a lot in my job. It allows me to community better with customer and coworkers. Understand instruction and feel more confidence while working because of this, I can do my job more efficiently and provide better service. Today, I am able to communicate more clearly in many everyday situations. I no longer depend on a translator, except when I come across technical vocabulary, I understand that I still have a long way to go, but I continue to work on my pronunciation and keep improving my fluency every day. Thank you for your time and for supporting programs like this that truly make a difference.

[Unidentified student (possibly 'Robertson')]: Hello? I'm say thank you for listening to me. This program is changing our life every day. And I'm going to tell you a little history about me. When I arrived in The United States, I didn't speak English. Nothing. No no word in English. Just hi and good morning. No more. I felt lost and afraid because I couldn't communicate. It was really hard to me. My first job was pushing carts at Walmart. And during the interview, I had to use my phone translator. Every day was very hard. One day was very hard, harder, more than last day. Customers talked to me and I couldn't answer. Simple things like buying food, go to the bank, felt overwhelming. I know some words I can't pronounce, but in my school, in adult learning, I'm improving that. I'm working on it. My life began to change when I joined Grand Isle of Adult Learning. They opened their doors to me and gave me the opportunity to start English classes for beginners. From the first day, my teacher showed great patience, care and commitment. She never gave up on me even when I made mistakes or felt frustrated. She always say, step by step. You know, always we are learning step by step. I begin to learn, and after a few months, I was able to understand people and help customers. He asked me, hey. What what what was your your first word in English that you learned? How can I help

[Michael Glazic]: you? I

[Unidentified student (possibly 'Robertson')]: gained confidence and for the first time, I felt that I belonged here. As my English improved, I was able to take in driving lessons, follow instruction, to learn, to write, follow. I can understand and my driver's lessons. I am so proud for that. My progress was noticed at work and I was giving a new opportunity in the home department at Walmart. I'm gonna say right now I am team leader. I am a team leader for my department in Walmart. Today, I am in the intermediate level of English. I can speak. I can read and write English. I can go to the bank to the supermarket and restaurant without use my Google translator. All of this happened in just one year. Thank you to Vermont Adult Learning or that is how my life is changing. They didn't only teach me English, They gave me confidence, independence, and hope. Thank you for opening the door to the to people like me, like the the like, you know, like you. Who want a better life and real change. I want to real change. I want to be a better person every day. And other learning, they gave me that opportunity. My dream is continuing learning and one day, I think in few months, give back teaching math and Spanish at 12 adult learning. Helping all this the same same way they help to me become part of this community. I truly hope the Vermont State can pronounce, you can hear me, Les Gees Leches. So the newest to support programs like like VermaAdult. I am the, you know, the model they took on this program because they truly change our life. And in my school, the learning problem, we have one I can say like this in the entry. Whatever you go, you go, go with all your heart. Thank you for listening.

[Michael Glazic]: Congratulations. Wonderful.

[Misha Iver]: Hi, my name is Misha Iver. As of today, am an artist. I'm a writer and illustrator of children's books. I'm a parent, which explains why I'm exhausted. I am a former student of Vermont Adult Learning. I'm an advocate for victims of domestic violence because that, and I'm a member of this community, and I take it very seriously. About seven years ago, I came to Vermont just for vacation. I lived at the time, forty five years, in New York City, and although I was pretty successful in my field as a graphic designer, I was miserable and lonely because regardless of my attempts to to find community, I felt lonely even surrounded by millions of people. I didn't know what I want, but I knew that that life doesn't fit me and I need something, something very abstract and not very clear, but something. And I had a very small vacation here and I fell in love with people, and I was curious if maybe this place can be my fault. I had some time in between jobs, and I decided that it's a good opportunity to check if there are some English classes potentially available in Burlington, Vermont. So I did what I always do when I'm curious, I googled it. Vermont English classes in Burlington, and this is how I found vermont.learning. I had no idea why I exactly went there. Just I was curious and driven by nothing, just curiosity. I was amazed how many opportunities were just available there, and I couldn't believe that if I want, I can have it. I took art history classes, and although it's something I studied through my old life, since early middle school age, all the way to my master degree in creative field, That was a challenge because learning the same things in English, it's a very different creature. But my teacher, Megan, was just a pure inspiration, and I just wouldn't have been up with it. And then I took a class on persuasive writing, although I had no idea what persuasive means. But Megan was so amazing that I decided whatever this mysterious persuasive is, I am high teaching learning because she's so good, I don't even care. And that was amazing experience on its own. And this is where I learned about how to build argument, how to do research on your audience. So I googled each of you and all of

[Peter Conlon]: you. And,

[Misha Iver]: yeah, how to make the drafts and even how to format, you know, all these Word documents. And then I just was practicing how to express myself in a very clear way, in the way that it's received, hopefully in the way I would love it to be received. So that was awesome. Plus to learn things there. And then I took a class on English, because I was told that Beverly Quimby is this genius of teaching, and she's so good, I just had to try it. So I did, and I'm happy to confirm she is that. Good. I also took a civics class with Beverly too, with the same logic as Megan. Beverly is great, so whatever she is teaching me, I just want to know how it is. And that class was my favorite. First class was about learning about American government, all these branches of government and what they're supposed to do and hopefully doing and how what do legislators and how to participate. And then she invited some legislators to meet the students, and I was just amazed because I'm from Belarus. We don't do these things there. We don't meet our representatives. If anything, we work very hard to avoid to be noticed by our government, because usually it's a very short distance from that experience to some prison sentence. And I was amazed that not only we can learn about them slash you, we can actually approach you, ask questions, disagree, challenge, make demands, hold you accountable if needed. That was just mind blowing. It's not something that I just culturally even could could take. We learn about local organizations that exist in Vermont. I'm in Burlington, somewhat like locally there, that were created and live in memory. We met all these people who just at some point decided that something is needed and therefore just did it. Like the guy who wanted to help a neighbor to have a bike to commute to job and now it's an old school's home, and how all these community health centers were created, Flynn. It was fascinating to learn that it's not just something abstract and untouchable, but actually it's right there, and you can approach and talk to people and learn these things. It's like a blueprint. Our final test was to pick one organization and then to go there by themselves, as other teachers, and interview them, and then sort of create a presentation. And I picked CEBA because I'm an artist, so I really wanted to know what else exists in the local community. And because of that, I was later able to have participate in some exhibitions or be in the markets. It was just so wonderful and supportive and taken out of it. I love this class so much, I took it twice. Barely. And looking back now, I see how those experiences shaped the way my everyday life looks now. Today, I'm very deeply involved in the community. As an artist, I collaborate with local organizations, participate in exhibitions, try to support other local artists, or at least trying to help maybe to navigate the whole system and maybe a way to go and a way to ask for help. If somebody is struggling with the very, very first steps, just refer them to Remodeling Learning so I know they will fix it. I'm also involved in the school community. I'm part of the PTO and part of all these committees because it's just so much fun. From what I learned there, I think the biggest benefit is that I was able to completely rewrite self identity. I could remove this element of the fear that I am just me, and it's not enough, and it's impossible to change anything because what can one person change? And now I know it's not really actually true. I mean, depends on the person, but as me as a person, what can. So therefore, I am deeply involved in advocacy for victims of domestic violence. I'm one of the co founders of Aptive Vermont on the Vermont Network. I'm helping new victims to navigate this complicated system and looking for support and sort of navigate what type of support and how to reach and how to get it. Most importantly, learned that knowledge is not something you just keep it to yourself. It's important to keep spreading it, like seeds from the spring flowers, because by doing that, everybody benefits from it. If art history in English, that was so hard, show me that there's a different perspective from what I believed I already knew, again, I studied it all my life, If civic Spanish showed me where I'm standing now, maybe persuasive writing helped me to understand how to deliver this message, and I use it truly every day through my personal self unpleasant experiences. I found myself often writing drafts for the courts to advocate for myself and my family, and I don't think I'll be able to do it ever without this knowledge and skills that I just developed there. And seven years ago, I learned about this abstract concept of understanding who your audience is and how to deliver your message. It's kind of fascinating that today I'm doing precisely that right now. And I think that all Burma love learning helped me to transform this abstract vacation experience in Burma to something that it's my home now that I fight for and advocate for and try to protect seriously. And that's it. And thank you so much for your time and for everything you're doing on behalf of my community. Thank you.

[Peter Conlon]: My

[Dobrovich Tungwara]: name is Dobrovich Tungwara, originally from South Sudan. I came in 2023 as a refugee. I spent half of my life in refugee camps and the rest inside civil war in my home country. My dad was a permanent chief and had nine wife and over 50 children. Whenever my dad goes for his daily community service, he would carry me along so that I could listen to how he this he handled dispute. I would sit down listening the whole time. And in the evenings, when when we are back home, he would ask me whether he did handle some of those dispute well or not. And sometime I would give him my my honest opinion if there is any case that he would have way the fine or the punishment. My dad would may would would call his his assistant sometime, maybe if there's someone that I mentioned, and he would out he would try maybe to adjust the the fine here and there. So that is how he has taught me giving service to the community in a very honest way. My dad always wanted me to be like him and to serve the community in resolving issues. This is this is where I got my inspiration to be a lawyer so that I can be arbitrator. At that time, my dream was to go to school but because of civil war in Sudan, by then, I never got a chance and I have always found myself being displaced with my family. And sometime I'm being forced with other children to carry some sustenance, rebels, logistics item in our heads and would sometime come face to face with enemy. And that is how I one times I one day got injured by the Sudanese Aircraft Aircraft Airship. After surviving, after surviving and to struggle to walk several hundreds of miles into our far areas where Humanitarian Organisation operate, I was flown to Kenya by ICRC for treatment for six month. And after I got healed, I went to the refugee camps where I spent ten years before going back to my home country to go vote for separation from Sudan, which which was oppressing us in the South. In 2011, we got our independent from Sudan. But within one year, another civil war broke out and I end up in the refugee camp again in Kenya

[Michael Glazic]: and

[Dobrovich Tungwara]: Uganda till I came here. When I arrived, I enrolled at Vermont, other learnings and I start with English then maths. I then enrolled for other courses. It's been almost three years now and I will be graduating hopefully within the coming months in June with my high school diploma this year and join college for economics degree economic degree and after law law school. My level of education right now has improved since I came. I'm able to apply and compete in the job market easily because I know how to write and read. I aspire to be a useful citizen to this great nation. I am also volunteering for the community service and charity organization here around Bennington. I would like to thank you for the support for the other education so that people like me can get free education. And I know many of my community members are also in this centers like the and many other refugees who will continue to access this service if the support continue to come through. Thank you very much.

[Michael Glazic]: Thank you. Thank you.

[Unidentified student (possibly 'Robertson')]: Wow, that's it. Wow.

[Misha Iver]: A couple of short little stories.

[Peter Conlon]: Anyone else that wants to speak? Questions or comments from anyone on the committee?

[Michael Glazic]: Fantastic. Thank you all. You. I

[Peter Conlon]: was a math teacher for over thirty years, so I hope you achieve your dream of helping people to learn math because I know how important that is. I hope that comes true for you.

[Michael Glazic]: Thank you all.

[Peter Conlon]: You all.