Catholics major presence in literacy program

Milwaukee Achiever Literacy Services celebrates silver jubilee

By Tom Jozwik
Special to your Catholic Herald

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Achiever Literacy Services, founded by representatives of three area Catholic colleges and headquartered in the former St. Philip Neri rectory, is celebrating its silver jubilee.

The adult literacy and workplace development organization began in February 1983 with a clientele of 14 students, or learners. School Sister of Notre Dame Mary Catherine Dundon was Milwaukee Achiever’s first executive director. The first year’s budget was $87.

Sr. Mary Catherine was a Mount Mary College professor when that school’s president and the presidents of Alverno and Cardinal Stritch colleges, along with academic deans from the three institutions, created Milwaukee Achiever in response to a 1982 report which revealed that one Milwaukee resident in six was functionally illiterate. Despite the efforts of Milwaukee Achiever and its counterparts, the percentage is even higher today, yet its work continues.

Milwaukee Achiever has had Catholic connections throughout its history. Its college president-founders were nuns: School Sister of Notre Dame Ellen Lorenz of Mount Mary, School Sister of St. Francis Joel Read of Alverno and Sister of St. Francis of Assisi Camille Kliebhan of Cardinal Stritch.

Its first four executive directors were also nuns. Social worker Peg Palmer, the current executive director, is a laywoman. But Palmer joked during a recent interview with your Catholic Herald that the nuns she works with often tell her that “social workers and sisters are very much alike – we all want to save the world!”

Representatives of several religious orders are among Milwaukee Achiever’s administrators, instructors and volunteer board members. Two of the sister-administrators – along with a volunteer layman and development coordinator Patricia Piazza – joined Palmer in being interviewed by your Catholic Herald.

“I absolutely love the learners, and the tutors ... are generous volunteers, Agnesian Sr. Brigid Layden, the site coordinator, said. “I see the progress that (the learners) have made and the difference this place has made for them. I just think it’s a place where they’re respected and we’re for them all the way – and they know it. It feels like a peaceful place to be, a haven for them.”

Added Piazza, a parishioner at St. Florian, West Milwaukee, “It’s a nice, homey center.”

Blessed Savior Parish, the result of a merger of several northwest Milwaukee parishes, including St. Philip Neri, last year, rents the 6,600-square-foot North 69th Street building to Milwaukee Achiever at a modest charge. Last fall the site supplanted a considerably smaller rental space Milwaukee Achiever had maintained for 15 years in the North Presbyterian Church three miles to the east.

“I can’t think of a better place to be,” School Sister of St. Francis Joan Puls said of her position as curriculum coordinator. “Education is in my system, for one thing, and being with these learners is a privilege; we get the opportunity to help them out. Their obstacles are so huge, so it’s an inspiration.”

Don O’Meara of Hartford, a member of St. Mary of the Hill Parish at Holy Hill and the husband of Milwaukee Achiever career development specialist Carolyn O’Meara, said he’s a volunteer tutor “because it’s fun. It’s a very pleasant atmosphere, very supportive, very nurturing. The students are treated well. The tutors are treated well, too.”

More than 15,000 individuals have availed themselves of Milwaukee Achiever Literacy Services. The base program center is on North 69th Street; another is at 1512 W. Pierce St. on the city’s South Side; and job center-learning lab satellites are located in West Allis and three Milwaukee locations. The sites serve approximately 1,500 adults ages 18-60-plus annually. Learners come from Mexico, China, Poland, Uganda and some 30 other countries.

Milwaukee Achiever has helped its patrons learn English, become United States citizens, develop computer skills, obtain GEDs and driving permits, hone math skills, better understand banking and hospital procedures and improve their individual employment pictures. If not supported through a program, learners are charged nominal fees on a sliding scale based on federal poverty guidelines. College credits are available to women at very little cost through a joint venture with Mount Mary.

“There are so many success stories,” said Palmer.

One is that of Vicky Morales, who went from being an English as a Second Language (ESL) student to award-winning teacher at Milwaukee’s Notre Dame Middle School. Another is that of Ger Lor, a refugee who, according to the executive director, “spent his whole childhood either running for his life in the jungles of Vietnam or in a camp in Thailand.”

Lor’s father swam out of Vietnam via the Mekong River, Palmer said, pulling young Ger on a raft behind him. Years later and half a world away, Milwaukee Achiever offset the feelings of intimidation that interfered with Lor’s progress at a large high school. Today, Lor is the computer technician for all six Milwaukee Achiever locations. He also works as a computer instructor at Mount Mary College.

Another Milwaukee Achiever alumnus is Fr. Eleazar Perez Rodriguez, a native of Mexico whose ministry as associate pastor at St. Adalbert and St. Rafael parishes enlivens Hispanic parishes on Milwaukee’s South Side.

“We try to give one-on-one (instruction) as much as we can,” Palmer said.

Consequently, Milwaukee Achiever is in need of scores of volunteers who have high school diplomas or GEDs and are at least 18 years of age.

“We feel that (because) we’re serving adults, we need adults to do that,” the executive director explained.
 
Volunteers are asked to make a minimal commitment of two hours a week for six months. Late afternoon and evening hours are times of greatest demand.