On March 14th, I interned for a day remotely at Joy Education Foundation!
Joy Education is a technology nonprofit that aims to provide low-income communities with accessible and affordable literacy support.
Joy Education utilizes virtual reading clinics to help students overcome reading difficulties through a well-structured plan. By beginning with providing a digital diagnostic that identifies students’ current reading strengths as well as rooms for improvement, followed by a digital curriculum that is backed up by real results including shown improvement in word recognition and overall fluency, and then given a one-to-one 20-30 minutes online tutoring session in reading and comprehension with the help of Google Meet and Jamboard, I found the layout of how Joy Education can effectively help students very well constructed.
On top of that, I get to see their plan in action when I was able to shadow Demetrius Lancaster, M.Ed, MPA, founder and executive director of Joy Education, and Zoe Butler, one of Joy Education's Teaching Fellows, on what a day looks like at the foundation. I joined multiple tutoring sessions where I observed how the teaching fellows interacted and built rapport with the children. I saw what methods were being implemented when Demetrius or Zoe sees a student struggling when sounding out a word-- stretching out a word using hand gestures or tapping on the arm to break down the word into individual letters and sounds. I also got to see a little about the grant writing process which was really interesting.
I want to take the time to thank Rutgers Intern For a Day (IFaD) program for organizing this program and matching me with Joy Education Foundation.
A huge thank you to Demetrius for the warmest welcome and giving me this opportunity to learn about Joy Education and its missions.
And to Zoe Butler, thank you for letting me shadow your tutoring sessions, they were insightful and I had so much fun.
As someone who comes from a low-income family, I was always reminded of how important and valuable education is. And as someone who also struggles with comprehension, I know how crucial it is to have such resources available to students who feel challenged. Therefore, having such a wonderful organization that cares and wants to help more children overcome their reading challenges and become even better readers is truly amazing.
