Recently, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation awarded JSU’s Continuing Education Learning Center (CELC) an $8,000 grant to support adult literacy. This local grant is part of more than $8.6 million in grants awarded to more than 950 schools, non-profits and organizations across the communities Dollar General serves.
Ms. Marquita Shelby, lead instructor at the CELC shares, “A primary goal of the Continuing Education Learning Center, Adult Basic Education (ABE) program, is to increase the literacy level of learners and attainment of the general equivalency diploma, which are critical to improving their economic viability. As lead instructor in the ABE program I am especially appreciative to the Dollar General Literacy Foundation for their valued support of the important work of the JSU CELC.”
“Do what is best,” says Dr. Carlos Wilson, interim director of the School of Lifelong Learning. “When given the opportunity to help a person, a community, or an organization achieve a goal, do what you can to make it happen. That is what Dollar General Literacy Foundation has done for Jackson State University and our Continuing Education Learning Center, and that is our goal for the students and community we serve in the Jackson metro area.”
The adult education classes at the Continuing Education Learning Center will provide adults the opportunity to earn a high school credential. It will also measure career and college readiness skills, which are the focus of today’s curriculum, and needed for success in both workforce and college programs. The learners recruited for the proposed program will be undereducated/unemployed/underemployed residents in the service delivery area Hinds, Madison, and Rankin counties who are seeking to enhance their abilities through obtaining their High School Equivalency Diploma (HSED). Students will receive at least 150 hours in a traditional classroom and computer-assisted instruction focused on high school equivalency skills and career readiness training. The primary measurable outcome/result of the program is: By the end of the project period, participants will achieve their HSED or achieve a minimum of 1.5 grade level improvement in reading.
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education. Since its inception in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $182 million in grants to nonprofit organizations, helping more than 11 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy or continued education.
