By Kiyomi Kishaba
Reporter
At the curve between the Pacific Lutheran University soccer fields and the Keithley middle school parking lot lies the Parkland Literacy Center (PLC), acting as a bridge between PLU and its surrounding community.
The idea for the PLC was born three years ago by Professor Scott Rogers, but has only recently became a reality with the help and funding by previously acting and now official President Alan Belton. With Rogers heading the English and literacy aspect and Professor Bridgit Yaden adding languages, the PLC became a place for learning and growth.
“The reason why Scott and I are the co-directors is that we each have a similar side of service on campus that is inward looking, but we are both very community minded and saw this as an extension of two centers within humanities that can be outward looking for our closest neighbors,” Yaden said.
Rogers and Yaden reached out to PLU students interested in engaging with the community and created a group of four assistant directors: Sharlene Rojas Apodaca, Ashley Carreno-Millan, Olivia Cano-Dominguez and Nick Templeton. The students have a range of majors from writing to philosophy, but are all either majoring or minoring in Hispanic Studies and have an interest in giving back to the Parkland community.
“The PLC is supposed to be a center for members of the Parkland community to come and engage in reading, writing, and generally any kind of learning,” Templeton said. “Down the road it includes more than middle school and high school students; ideally it will be a space for adults in the community to do writing workshops and ELL classes.”
During the opening day of the PLC, the majority of English and AVID teachers from Keithley Middle School brought their classes to tour the center, including PLU alum Megan Gonzalez. Throughout the first week, about 20 students came in for help with writing, speeches, SAT prep and advice about college. A student and parent from Washington High School had come in asking for help understanding their financial aid in their award letter from PLU, and the PLC was able to connect them with resources on campus as well as answer questions.
“We’re able to be those people that really help the students, and especially Spanish speaking parents with being comfortable with the idea of first generation students coming to college,” Cano-Dominguez said.
“They’ll ask about high school experiences which is an important part of PLC,” Rojas Apocada added. “We can help them not just academically, but as people, which is also an important part of student’s life.”
With a current staff of eight student volunteers, the PLC provides two and half hours of tutoring Monday through Thursday. Training for the volunteers emphasizes the idea of creating a co-learning environment where both student and tutor engage in the material and work as team. In the fall semester, they will be incorporating a class to come volunteer at the PLC.
“The core goal is to become a hub for people who want to do community engaged teaching and learning,” Rogers said. “Our fiction writer Jason Skipper is interested in doing community storytelling workshops; we have so much space and interest I can’t help but imagine there is a way to mobilize them together.”
The PLC is currently looking for more enthusiastic volunteers. Those interested can email literacy@plu.edu or find the Parkland Literacy Center on plu.edu for more information. There will also be an open house at the center (1122 124th St South) for faculty on May 15th from 3-4pm, and a similar event for students will occur in fall.
The PLC’s goal is to create a second home for the Parkland students and utilize the resources of PLU to give back to the community. Assistant director Carreno-Millan said:
“Even as PLU students we get so absorbed in our studies that we forget there’s more around the community. It’s nice to step away from that space and be involved somewhere else.”
