ALLENTOWN, Pa. — In an event room at Muhlenberg College, three young women sat together, holding bouquets of flowers and wearing bright smiles.
They had just been honored on stage for how far they've come.
- The Literacy Center honored three former graduates of their programs Thursday night at a gala at Muhlenberg College
- All three graduates were newcomers to the United States; some spoke no English. They now are working skilled jobs, or pursuing higher education
- A well-liked teacher of the center, Judit Garger, also was honored with the flagship award
Since first coming to the United States with little education, they now all either work high-skilled jobs or are pursuing graduate school.
All are supporting flourishing families, and all appeared genuinely happy. You could tell by the way they spoke with a calm assurance — though some expressed a little discomfort being the center of attention.
It was the 'Faces of Literacy' gala, put on by The Literacy Center in Allentown, a nonprofit that offers G.E.D. programs, English as a Second Language, and workforce development classes.
All three of the students honored graduated from one of those.
Monique, Julieth, and Jhosselyn
Monique Vorster, who emigrated from South Africa, got a G.E.D. through the center a few years ago.
She said that because of economic issues in South Africa, she didn't see much opportunity to get a good education while there. So she came to the United States.
"It was my self confidence, yes, having a lack of communication and language, I had a lot of insecurities about, 'are people going to understand me out there?'"Julieth Garcia, ESL program graduate at The Literacy Center
"I was a stay-at-home housewife, and my goal was to raise my kids first, and then my career came second," Vorster said. "But I just thought, 'Well, I'll finish my education while I have the opportunity.' And yeah, here I am."
She said she did most of that while pregnant and with small children who came with her to Allentown, while her husband was living abroad.
Now, Vorster is pursuing a master's degree, and her goal is to get a doctorate.
Julieth Garcia moved to the United States from Cali, Colombia, in 2017, with virtually no functional English.
She said she started her career in the United States as a house cleaner, but had higher ambitions.
"I realized that it's not the job that I wish to have forever," Garcia said. "So I had to take care of my learning, and be maybe, you know, inspiring to some other person in a situation like me."
Now, Garcia has a job with the Lehigh Valley Children's Center, and is even starting her own project with the Center for Humanistic Change.
"So I'm out again of my comfort zone," she said. "So it is really, really great for me."
Jhosselyn Geldres came to the United States from Lima, Peru, and finished the Administrative Professional Training program through the Literacy Center.
She said her biggest challenge was not external battles, but her journey with herself.
"It was my self-confidence," she said. "Yes, having a lack of communication and language, I had a lot of insecurities about, 'Are people going to understand me out there?'"
She said doing the program has done wonders for her self-esteem, and she's now more confident than ever.
"So I started like meet people, and the Literacy Center, who also pushed me, to say, like, 'Jhosselyn, you can do it, I can understand you. Give it a try, give yourself the opportunity to challenge yourself,'" she said.
Now, Geldres is headed for an undergraduate degree, and said she has no plans of stopping there.
Celebrating the teachers
At the gala, there is also a flagship award handed out to one of the teachers every year. It's called the Champion of Literacy Award, and it's kept a surprise until the name is announced the night of the ceremony.
This year, it went to Judit Garger, the center's director of programming. When her name was announced, Garger received not one, but two standing ovations.
Bashfully accepting the award, she jokingly said, "Before the event, my team asked if I had to speak tonight, and I said, 'No, thank God, no," as she stood on the podium speaking to a couple hundred people.
When she descended from the stage, people were practically lining up to hug her. That included colleagues as well as former students.
A video montage played on the projected screens at the front of the room, with colleagues and former students saying how much her teaching means to them.
In the video montage, one of her colleagues, Faten Silfies, an ESL instructor at the center, said something that made many heads in the room nod:
"She has a sentence that she always uses: 'What can we do?' I always like that, because she doesn't give instructions like she's above you — she makes it feel like 'you and me are figuring this out together."
