These students participated in the Townsend Reading Program, coordinated by Developmental English Instructor Angie Adams, at Richmond Community College last semester. The program gives students incentives to read, by allowing them to earn up to $300 worth of scholarships for reading up to 30 books. Pictured on the first row, from left to right, are Lillie Douglas, Wendy McIntyre, Stephanie Richardson and Carolyn Troxler. On the second row, Ayanna McNeill, Nikki Martinez, Necole Sweatt, Lemon Streeter and Rhonda Covington. On the third row are Elizabeth English, Regina Hamilton, Paul Clark, Whitney Allen, Catrina Steed, Niko Crump, Shonda Brown, Tina Rankin and Adams. Not pictured are Iris Ingram, Ashley Smith, Sherry Singleton, and Cadre’ Bethea.
“His name is Tyray,” she described the main character of “The Gun” to Developmental English Instructor Angie Adams. “He is a big guy, and he’s like the bully of the school - he’s always pushing people around.”
She answered several questions about the plot of the book from the Bluford series, before considering what her next selection would be.
“Is there another one after that?” she asked Adams.
“No, that was the last one in that series,” Adams answered. “But if you get ‘The Bully,’ the one right next to it, some of the same characters kind of filter through there, but you’ve read them all from that series.”
Stogner is participating in a unique reading program at RCC done through the developmental English classes. It is called the Townsend Press Reading Program.
She will be paid for reading, up to $300 for 30 books over the course of this semester. “The Bully” will be her fourth book.
“As good as these books have been, I’ve been reading about one a day,” she said.
“This is a scholarship program through Townsend Press,” Adams said. “They offer it to developmental students only. It’s an incentive program that encourages them to read, and they pay our students.”
Adams said there are 30 titles for students to choose from, besides the Bluford series, there are such American classics as “The Scarlet Letter,” and “Up From Slavery,” as well as inspirational and self-help books.
If a student completes 10 books, they get $100, or $200 for 20, or $300 for 30 .
She teaches English 80, the middle of three developmental programs offered at RCC, and students check out the books from her, then give a summary of the book’s contents to her in an oral report to prove they read it.
She said the students in her classes range from students straight out of high school to displaced workers who have been out of school for 20 or more years, to people whose first language isn’t English
“You have a vast array of ages and cultures (in these classes),” Adams said. “Sometimes there’s a language barrier, because English isn’t there first language.”
Last semester, three students read all 30 titles and received $300 each.
Carolyn Troxler was one of the three. She is in her second year at RCC, and hopes to enter the accounting field.
“I really liked the ones that had three and four characters,” she said. “It was true. They talked about their accomplishments, their hardships, what they had to go through to get where they were today, and being that I was a textile job for 20 years and a plant closing forced me to come out here ... I could relate to these books.”
She said that “The Bully” was one selection that stood out to her because she was bullied when she was younger.
“There were a lot of them you could really put yourself in, and that really helps the reading process,” she said. “I enjoyed it, I really did.”
She said she changed her reading habits while participating in the program.
“The biggest thing I did, is I’ve always been the type of person who reads too fast, and doesn’t comprehend what I’m reading,” she said. “When I was reading these books, I slowed myself down, which really helped me with (other) classes.”
Elizabeth English is studying dental hygiene at RCC. She read all 30 titles and then read more.
“I really wanted to read the sequel and finish that book, ‘The Summer of Secrets,’ so I just went out and bought it,” she said.
She donated that and another book to the program for other students who get hooked on the series and can’t put it down.
“I never really liked reading, but when the thing came along where you could get money for it, that gave me some motivation to do it,” Paul Clark said. “Those books were easy to read. I liked it. I tried to read books from the library before, like I tried to read ‘Oliver Twist,’ it had so many words in it, I’d read a page and not know what I’d just gotten done reading.”
As for long-term effects. “I’m still reading now,” he said.
He participated in the program last semester, and is studying to transfer to a university.
Adams explained the act of reading helps to make these students better-equipped to perform in a scholastic environment.
“Reading is like any sport,” she said. “You have to practice at it to get better, and this program gives them an incentive to read and get better - money.”
Tina Rankin used the method that Adams thinks has worked best to get through her 30 titles last semester, big books on the weekends and little books during the week.
However, she works full-time and goes to school full-time, so she had an added degree of difficulty for the $300 she spent on a car payment.
“I read solid,” she said.
Last semester was the first time the program was instituted at the college.
“We gave away $3,000 in scholarships,” Adams said. “The reading comprises the greater part of the benefit to this program. The money - that’s just a little incentive on the side.”
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