1996 EAGLE
Award-winner
Willie Almond, Jr.
is Franklin, Ga.'s
newest city
councilman.
(Photo/DTAE File)

Willie Almond Jr. can do just about anything with his hands: make a spot-weld, prune a bush, rivet a steel girder into place while walking along a six-inch-wide beam a hundred feet above the ground.

But there is one thing Almond, who runs a growing lawn service and landscaping business in the small west-Georgia city of Franklin, never learned to do properly when growing up: read. Fighting dyslexia since childhood, he quit high school and never imagined he would return.

Yet Almond, now 42, has managed -- through his own pluck, as well as the help of adult literacy instructors and his wife, Sarah -- to learn to read his favorite magazines, expand his lawn care business and hire contractors. He almost single-handedly initiated a countywide literacy program for Heard County by encouraging officials from nearby West Georgia Technical Institute to create the program. Perhaps most significantly, Almond was elected Franklin's first African-American city councilman this century.

" Education is power when used correctly, " Almond intones, reading steadily from one of his speeches and then adding a few words. "I truly believe that if you have an education, you have the knowledge to become whatever you choose. " And Almond has , I other plans for his future. "One of my goals, "he says, "is to write a book about a little boy who grew up in Franklin, Georgia, quit school, started out rock-bottom, and then went back to school and learned to read.

Winners From Diverse Backgrounds
It is not easy to win an EAGLE Award. Outstanding learners like Almond are first nominated by their instructors from 37 regions around the state. Any adult enrolled in a Georgia literacy class - everything from private workplace and family programs to the Office of Adult Literacy, JTPA, TANF, Laubach, Literacy Volunteers of America or other publicly funded programs - is eligible.

Semifinalists are then chosen from each of six larger geographic areas in Georgia at each of seven reading levels (four in basic reading and three in English as a Second Language) and are named EAGLE Award winners. UP to 42 EAGLE winners, the six regional finalists at each academic level, are then judged in one final statewide competition. Based on a combination of personal characteristics, interview responses and academic accomplishments, one EAGLE winner is selected to represent each level as a Literacy Ambassador for the year.

Touring the state and speaking about their learning experiences, the 38 EAGLE winners in 1997 included such outstanding learners as Willie Davis, 69. Davis, who was forced to leave high school in the 1940s because of illness, found work in an Atlanta area apartment complex painting, doing plumbing and generally keeping up the building's physical condition.

When a new complex manager began giving him written work orders a few years back, Davis had to admit something: he could not read them. With the manager's encouragement and a friend's help, he began learning to read, first with a home tutor and then by taking classes at a Middle Georgia Technical Institute off-campus program in nearby Springfield. Today, Davis spends 12 hours each week using the classroom computers and workbooks.

"Yes, my life has improved," says Davis. "It's a whole lot easier to do things. I couldn't read those complaints or the road signs before, and now I can do it, This program makes me feel good about myself. And I've gotten to meet a whole lot of people, too." In time, Davis says, he would eventually like to try to earn his high school equivalency.

"Mr. Davis is a fine gentleman," comments Carol Rigsby, lead instructor at the four-county Springfield literacy center where Davis attends classes. "He provides a lot of positive leadership in the classroom here. The other students -- and they range in age from 16 years old to 74 years -- respect him and look up to him. That helps me out a great deal."

Cobb County resident Teresa Brodersen was also a 1997 EAGLE winner. Brodersen left school after the 10th grade to start a string of businesses. Her working life -- which included a boat detailing business, a marine hardware management position, cruise ship employment and work with international computer firms - was always successful, but she longed to finish her high school education. In September 1996, she finally did.

"I learned in the college of life," she recalls. "I started out as a data entry clerk and worked my way up to international positions. I lived in Europe for a while. But I still felt something was missing, I felt inadequate.

In my business I'm constantly dealing with CEOs and finance people who have lots of education, and I always felt like a little kid around them. Over the years, I came to realize the real value of an education.

"The literacy program gave me something that was so important: it gave me confidence that I was ready to study," she says now. "It was very hard for me to go back to school. I had a major fear of failure. I was petrified. But this program made me feel at ease, and it prepared me for study again."

That preparation allowed Brodersen to enroll at Kennesaw State University, where she is now a junior majoring in business while also studying art and English. Her current business project is a new computer-chip trading company; her next career goal is to write professionally.

"Once this new company gets rolling," she vows, "we'll definitely have a special fund with a percentage devoted to literacy education."

Brodersen says she will continue to be a vocal advocate of Georgia's adult literacy programs. "Blue-collar workers often haven't finished their high school education," she points out, "and you need to get them to understand this: that being able to read and getting an education means you can make more money, and it means feeling better about yourself. If they know they have this possibility, it makes all the difference."

Georgia's 1997 Literacy Ambassadors/EAGLE Winners (left to right):
Jose Luis Solis, Olga Kirolis, Willie Davis, Suk Cha Dewitt,
Timothy Owens, Teresa Brodersen, Robert Johnson
(Photo/DTAE File)

Robert Johnson of Gainesville, another 1997 EAGLE winner. began taking literacy classes at the age of 48. Johnson dropped out of high school at 18 to take care of five younger siblings after his father had a stroke. Nearly 30 years later -- when a good job offer disappeared after he revealed he did not have a diploma -- he decided to finish high school. Last May, Johnson was recognized for an even greater honor, a national Outstanding Adult Learner Award. "He was bashful when he first entered the literacy program; he was wearing tinted glasses and was soft-spoken," recalls Rhetta. "But just a year later, at his GED graduation, he was like a celebrity -- surrounded by students as he told his story. He has become a totally different person."

Other 1997 EAGLE Award winners named Literacy Ambassadors included Suk Cha DeWitt, 52, a Korean immigrant who came to the United States in 1969; Olga Kirolos, 48, an Egyptian woman who emigrated to Georgia with her family 15 years ago and is determined to enter a graduate studies program; Timothy Owens, 41, a Norcross resident who overheard a supervisor mocking him and enrolled in literacy classes; and Jose Luis Solis, 41, a Mexican immigrant with a design degree who learned English as a second language in Georgia and today volunteers as a language and art tutor in Forsyth and Lumpkin County schools.

Georgia Program Growing, the Fastest
While it is difficult to accurately assess the problem of adult illiteracy - the U.S. Census Bureau stopped tracking literacy rates in 1930 -- high school graduation statistics make it clear that a significant number of Georgia adults still probably cannot read well.

The latest figures, from 1990, indicate that only about two-thirds of Georgia's adults hold high school diplomas -- this is lower than the national average of 75 percent. Among African-American adults in Georgia, the number who graduated from high school dips even lower to 57 percent.

First Lady Shirley Miller, a champion of adult literacy programs, has helped push the problem into the Georgia spotlight in recent years and literacy budgets have doubled in response.

That money has helped each of the 159 counties in Georgia hire full-time adult literacy teachers. In addition, 1,590 computers for special "literacy laboratories" have been purchased.

First Lady Shirley Miller and Dr. Ken Breeden
at Georgia's 8th Annual Literacy Conference
in February 1997.(Photo/DTAE File)

These efforts seem to be making a difference: between 1990 and 1995, the number of GEDs awarded in Georgia rose 60 percent, the largest increase in the nation. The state's adult literacy program is recognized as one of America's top five. Asked to summarize its worth, though, Rhetta points not to statistics or awards, but instead to the success of the students themselves.

"The important thing," concludes Rhetta "is to note the accomplishments of these adult learners. of our first ambassadors later became director of a day care center in Houston County where she had worked. Some of them go on to college. We have one student who has maintained a 4.0 grade point average. One won a national award. One has a successful lawn business."

"These students can compete successfully."

Paul Karr is a prize-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, the San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle and other publications.