EDCC Joins Community Colleges Statewide in Celebrating Adult Literacy Week

, along with Shoreline, Everett and Cascade community colleges and Lake Washington Institue of Technology, is joining with students and area employers this week to celebrate Washington State’s Adult Literacy Week.

For people such as Estefanya Jenson, it is a week worth celebrating.

“I feel like a role model for Latinas who quit school,” says Jenson, who studied English and math at Cascadia Community College in Bothell and graduated with her GED in June 2011. “I’m always encouraging them to go back.”

Community colleges help educate adult learners to master basic skills, move into good jobs and support the state’s efforts to build a strong workforce. Currently, one in six adults in Washington lacks the education and training necessary to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. For those, adult basic education can help open doors to self-sufficiency. People with high school diplomas or GEDs earn 24 percent more over their lifetimes than nongraduates, according to state statistics.

“Education should be inclusive rather than illusive,” says Gail Miulli, dean for student learning at Cascadia. “The Adult Basic Education program at Cascadia provides opportunities for hundreds of individuals in our immediate community, who may never have dreamed of attending college, to get an education and build critical skills like reading and writing.”

As part of its commitment to educating adult learners, Cascadia is holding a Basic Skills Transition Resource Fair on Wednesday. Cascadia also offers workforce training, GED classes, courses in basic reading, writing and math skills, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and high school completion programs.

Cascadia also offers the I-BEST program (Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training), which was developed by the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges to help underserved populations achieve a livable wage. This program pairs technical and ESL instructors, who work together to teach students the skills they need while simultaneously earning credit toward a certificate or degree.

“Washington’s economic growth and prosperity depends on our ability to make education and job training universally accessible to citizens of all ages and backgrounds,” said Gov. Christine Gregoire about the state’s Adult Literacy Week.