News Briefs & Upcoming Events

JWT Uses Recycled Stock Photo Books to Teach Kids to Read

JWT is the world’s best-known marketing communications brand. Headquartered in New York, JWT is a true global network, with more than 200 offices in over 90 countries employing nearly 10,000 marketing professionals. This spring their New York office has been working with GLP on an innovative idea called the “My First Book Project.” Here is a brief press release from PDNPulse (http://www.pdnpulse.com/2010/03/jwt-uses-recycled-stock-photo-books-to-teach-kids-to-read.html)…

Bulky old stock photography and illustration catalogues take up a lot of space, but it can feel like an awful waste to pitch the lavishly printed tomes into a recycling bin. A project by JWT has given old stock books new life as educational tools for youngsters learning to read.

The “My First Book Project” program was created by staffers in the advertising agency’s Cape Town, South Africa office as a tool to teach kids to read, and has since spread to other JWT offices, including the one in New York.

To convert the stock photography books into tools that help children learn to read, “authors” write simple, single-word descriptions of what’s depicted in the photographs—“Dog” or “Man” or “Nose” for instance—on each page.

JWT has partnered with The Global Literacy Project (GLP), a non-profit organization that collects and delivers donated books to areas of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean with low literacy rates. The program is right in line with the GLP motto: “Books for Brainfills, Not Landfills!”

Thus far more than 2,000 JWT employees worldwide have created books that have reached 70,000 children in three countries.

Getty and Corbis are also supporting the program through donations of outdated stock photo catalogues.

Others who wish to get involved can send inquires to:

The Global Literacy Project
P.O. Box 228
New Brunswick, NJ 08930

Princeton University/GLP 2010 Internships

The International Internship Program at Princeton University will be participating in our 2010 Global Learning Expedition to South Africa. Last year two Princeton University students, Connor Diemand-Yauman and Erica Clark, participated in the 2009 Global Learning Expedition. Connor and Erica spent two months teaching at the Setholela school in Randfontein.

Three Princeton University students were selected by the Global Literacy Project for the 2010 expedition. “We are excited to have new students from Princeton who will continue the great work started by the 2009 interns,” said Olubayi Olubayi, President of the Global Literacy Project.

The GLP Global Learning Expedition is an annual program that gives US students the opportunity to interact with, and share experiences with students from other parts of the world.

Planning for 2010 South Africa Trip

The Pingry School is planning a summer 2010 service trip to South Africa. The Pingry School and the Global Literacy Project are excited to offer students the opportunity to connect across continents and cultures. The student volunteers will be traveling to South Africa mid summer to help create a school library as well as a community literacy program in the Guateng province. Look out for future updates.

GLP Volunteer Wins Princeton’s Highest General Distinction

The GLP family had great news to share when Princeton senior Connor Diemand-Yauman was named the winner of the University’s 2010 Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction conferred on an undergraduate.

At a luncheon on Saturday, Feb. 20 Connor was recognized as the senior who has most clearly manifested excellent scholarship, strength of character and effective leadership. Previous recipients include the late Princeton President Emeritus Robert F. Goheen ‘40, former U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes ‘54 and current U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ‘76.

Connor served as president of his class during his freshman, sophomore and junior years, and was elected president of the undergraduate student body in 2009.

Last summer, he volunteered with the Global Literacy Project as a teacher’s aide at a farm school in Randfontein, South Africa.

Next summer, he hopes to volunteer with the Global Literacy Project in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. After that, he intends to accept an offer to write and act on his own children’s English educational show on Korean PBS.

“I feel humbled and extremely honored to be receiving this distinction and am indebted to everyone who has so selflessly helped and guided me along the way,” Connor said. “This is as much their award as it is mine.”

For the full story see “News at Princeton“

Junior High Students Share with Their Community

2009 Make-A-Difference Day program at Grace Wilday School in Roselle New Jersey

Grace Wilday student with principal Reginald Mirthil and GLP representative, Emeka Akaezuwa

One of the highlights of GLP’s 2009 Make-A-Difference Day programming was our visit to Grace Wilday Junior High School. There, we provided books so that the 488 students at the school could each select a book that they would donate to someone in their community. Each book had to be accompanied by a card written by the student explaining that they wanted to share the gift as a way to pull their community together for Make-A-Difference Day. Nearly 1000 books were involved in the give-away.

Supporters Brave Weather to Celebrate 2009 “Walk for Literacy”

Walkers support Global Literacy

The fall weather was brisk and organizers feared that it would rain but a break in the weather allowed over 25 organizations, family groups, and other interested individuals to follow the scenic route. In fact it made for a wonderful sense of solidarity and excitement among all the walkers.

Funds raised from the walk will assist in expanding our local “Take Reading Home” programs in New Jersey as well as GLP’s innovative “Classroom Connections” program that links South African and Kenyan school children with New Jersey students. The program also trains the teachers teaches them how to introduce fundamental ideas of human rights and common aspirations that all students share in the classroom. By raising their awareness of children’s and women’s rights, students and teachers can begin to address these issues in their wider communities.

“Take Reading Home” Kindergarten Students to Receive Donated Books

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ– October 5, 2009 – Close to 400 students in kindergarten at three New Brunswick nursery and pre-school programs will receive new books this week, thanks to a book drive by Global Literacy Project, Inc., as part of the “Take Reading Home” program being piloted with the Puerto Rican Action Board.

The books will be donated along with backpacks containing school supplies for their fall classes. Global Literacy Project volunteers will be continuing an ongoing reading program during the fall at each site.

Anyone interested in supporting the “Take Reading Home” program can become a volunteer in the program. After completing one training session, volunteers spend just a few hours each week teaching kindergartners to read. For more information please contact Emeka Akaezuwa at info@glpinc.org

Group encourages students to ‘R.E.A.D.’

September 13, 2009: Rutgers University, NJ.- As the academic year begins, students may look through their syllabi and realize their required readings include nothing they actually want to read. But Artemus Werts is offering some alternatives.
Werts, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, founded the R.E.A.D. book club, an acronym for Read, Engage and Discuss. “[The club is] really just about reading a book and being able to discuss it with a group of peers,” Werts said. The mission of R.E.A.D. is to provide an arena for the analysis of literature outside of a classroom setting, he said.

In addition to holding conversations about the books, the club plans to advance literacy around the world through cooperation with the Global Literacy Project, a non-profit organization that works to help provide books and build libraries abroad, Werts said.

See story here ->http://www.dailytargum.com/university/student-involvement/group-encourages-students-to-r-e-a-d-1.1876039

It’s Summertime Reading at the Puerto Rican Action Board!

Diane Ode and Marian Pho lead a reading session at PRAB - The program kicked off on July 14th

Research shows children lose one to three months of learning every summer. They forget math and reading skills they worked hard to acquire during the school year. Then they have to work even harder to catch up in the fall. GLP and the Puerto Rican Action Board decided to help prevent this summer learning loss with a weekly series of interactive reading sessions.

The PRAB and GLP have an ongoing partnership as part of GLP’s “Culture of Reading Campaign” where three to four times a year GLP donates a book to every student in their program as well as bringing Rutgers University students to read interactively with the students.

New Jersey student, 12, participates in Global Literacy Project

Neeraj Shekhar, of Martinsville, New Jersey, collected some 1,000 medical books as part of a self-designed initiative with the Global Literacy Project. The books–in addition to models, posters, stethoscopes, and a digital projector–were donated to the Delta School of Nursing, an educational facility in a small Southern India coastal village that serves girls from oppressed and impoverished communities. Neeraj was inspired by the difference that access to literacy can make when he and his parents participated in a GLP Global Learning Expedition to South Africa in  the summer of 2007. Neeraj and his parents, Vaidyanathan Chandrashekhar and Janaky Ramaswamy, traveled to India this past March to deliver the items to the delta School as well as to volunteer in setting up a small library with the items. According to Dr. Olubayi Olubayi, president of the Global Literacy Project, Shekhar is the youngest person to undertake this kind of project by himself.

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090412/NEWS/904120316