MODESTO, California — LearningQuest Stanislaus Literacy Centers is a nonprofit organization aiming to educate adults without formal education while working with them to attain a GED or high school equivalency diploma.
ABC10's Mark S. Allen spoke with the organization's employees, as well as with a graduate, in order to find out more.
HERE ARE 3 THINGS TO KNOW:
- The goal is to help members of the community expand their opportunities. Anjelica Lopez recently graduated the program with her sister. She explained to Mark she was able to find a new job because of LearningQuest.
"I started [LearningQuest] back in October of last year. My sister followed the next month after. We graduated, both, in December," said Lopez. "We started getting our jobs and then I got a second job out in bath and body with Dick's Sporting Goods. It's just been a great experience all over." - Students do not have to pay to be educated. LearningQuest is funded by grants, community partnerships, donations and fundraisers. The organization's most recent fundraiser was Over The Edge: Modesto, an event where donors rappelled over the edge of a multiple-story commercial business building. Each donor must raise a minimum of $1,000.
"It goes all into our programs here at LearningQuest," explained LearningQuest employee Courtney Saint-Smith. "We're a nonprofit and we help students earn their high school equivalency diploma. We help certain students learn to read and write and also to learn English. So all of that funding goes back into the programs here at LearningQuest." - Karen Williams, the Executive Director for LearningQuest, has been working to help literacy in Modesto and Stanislaus County for 27 years.
"I had moved here and I thought 'what can I do to help this community?'" Williams said. "There was a program that had helped people learn to read and that's my favorite thing, so I said 'I want to do that!' Look at what it's become. We serve a thousand students a year with free programs."
CHECK IT OUT YOURSELF:
- Web: LearningQuest Stanislaus Literacy Centers
- Location: 1032 11th St, Modesto, CA 95354
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