Early Reading is Essential
Because reading, writing, and spelling difficulties can result in poor school performance and low self-esteem, families who are financially able send their children with language-related learning differences to special schools or hire private tutors.
The Augustine Literacy Project is committed to providing caring, professionally-trained tutors for those whose families cannot afford to pay. The combination of nurture and knowledge that an Augustine tutor offers early to at-risk students can mean the difference between productivity and a positive future or an increased risk of perpetuating the cycle of poverty. ALP sees this as a life-saving intervention; early reading proficiency is that important.
Since 2006, ALP has trained over 195 tutors who have provided over 16,000 hours of specialized, individualized reading tutoring in the Upstate of South Carolina.
Welcome Our New Executive Director
Augustine Literacy Project of the Upstate (ALP) announces the growth and advancement of the organization with the staff hiring of Sandi Smith as Executive Director. Sandi has been with our organization since September 2016 when she trained as a volunteer tutor. She was elected to the Board of Directors in December 2018 and was appointed volunteer Co-Executive Director in April 2019. During that time, she has tutored six ALP students for 254 lessons, and instructed 83 volunteer tutor trainees in over 8 training sessions.
Sandi has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Binghamton University and Master of Business Administration from American InterContinental University. She is an Associate of the Orton-Gillingham Academy, Structured Literacy Dyslexia Interventionist through the Center for Effective Reading Instruction (CERI-SLDI), and owner of OG Works Tutoring Service.
Sandi brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and leadership to her full-time role for ALP. She joins our Tutor Resource Manager, Shayla Larsen, and the entire working Board of Directors to articulate our mission and vision in the Upstate of South Carolina. With the greater need for our services in the community, now is the time to meet the challenges with a strategic plan focusing on development, outreach, and collaboration with our education partners in support of our volunteers and the success of our students.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
ALP-Upstate accepts tutors, volunteers and staff of all ages, ethnicity, backgrounds, beliefs and physical attributes based solely on their commitment, character, competence, and ability to perform their relevant tasks relating to ALP-Upstate. From the Board and staff to volunteers and students, we create an instructional partnership environment that is diverse, inclusive, harmonious, and respectful.
Augustine Literacy Project of the Upstate (ALP-Upstate) believes that to achieve educational equity a child should become competent in reading and writing regardless of their learning differences. We recognize that there is a diversity in the way individuals process information. It is vitally important that children in this significant learning-differences population be able to "Read to Learn" by the end of third grade in order to progress successfully through the rest of school and on into adult life. If this is not achieved, this population will be disadvantaged in society and not be able to contribute their full talents to it. Educational equity requires identifying these differences ragrdless of age, race, or socio-economic status and tailoring learning for them. ALP-Upstate is committed to providing high quality assessment and evidence-based one-to-one literacy tutoring services to learning-diverse students in order to address this inequity.
Working with schools and community partners under their own Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) guidelines to select students that meet the ALP-Upstate charter, we will accept children regardless of any other attributes beyond a willingness to learn.
