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Education Briefs: Library's Adult Literacy Service Receives $20,934 Grant

Posted on: Sunday, 6 November 2005, 12:00 CST

By Staff, Wire and Correspondent Reports

The Scripps Howard Literacy Grant Foundation has awarded $20,934 to the Tulsa City-County Library's Ruth G. Hardman Adult Literacy Service. It's the largest grant ever awarded by the 43-year-old foundation.

The grant was presented Wednesday by KJRH, channel 2, which is owned by E.W. Scripps Co., the foundation's corporate parent.

The grant will be used for tutor training, outreach to children, a new book highlighting works written by adult learners and a bilingual coloring book for children.

Developments in genetic testing is topic of lecture today

A nationally recognized expert on genetic testing for cancer will speak Thursday at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa conference center.

Yale University Professor Ellen Matloff will present the lecture "Does cancer run in your family? New options in genetic testing, surveillance and risk reduction."

Matloff went to Yale in 1996 to start the Cancer Genetic Counseling program, which is now one of the largest in the country.

The 9:30 a.m. speech is free. For more information, call 660- 3317.

Foundation begins fund drive for school mentoring

An education foundation started by University of Oklahoma President David Boren is trying to raise $750,000 for mentoring in public schools.

The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation of Tulsa pledged $100,000 toward an Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence endowment, which will perpetually fund mentoring programs.

The foundation, which aims to improve public education in Oklahoma, hopes to raise the full amount by May, said Brenda Wheelock, the foundation's communications director.

The money will fund mentoring training, consulting services and advocacy, Wheelock said. It will also pay for a database of mentoring opportunities, which potential volunteers can reference and from which communities can draw inspiration, she said.

The Boren Mentoring Initiative, named after Boren and his wife, Molly Shi Boren, will include a public relations campaign to advocate mentoring, a press release said.

Big Brothers Big Sisters International, which Wheelock said communities could use for mentoring, says on its Web site, www.bbbsi.org, that mentoring improves students' school attendance, improves school performance and gives students more positive views of their futures, among other benefits.

Cherokee courses planned in Fort Gibson school district

FORT GIBSON -- The Fort Gibson public school district plans to offer instruction in Cherokee culture and customs at its schools.

Assistant Superintendent Linda Clinkenbeard said the district is working to get state certification in the Cherokee language. Because the district's student population is 40 percent American Indian, most of whom are Cherokee, there should be an interest in the language, she said.

A 2002 Cherokee Nation study indicated that fewer than 7 percent of the tribe's members in northeastern Oklahoma speak Cherokee.

Expert in types of learning to speak at symposium

BARTLESVILLE -- An expert on how boys and girls learn and develop will bring his knowledge to parents, teachers and counselors Thursday during Bartlesville's Family Life Symposium 2005.

Michael Gurian, a renowned therapist and the author of 20 books, will speak at a free forum on "The Minds of Boys: How to Help Our Sons Do Their Best In School" from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Bartlesville Community Center.

A seminar for professionals on how boys and girls learn differently is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday featuring Gurian and a certified trainer from his institute, Anne Storey Carter. The seminar fee is $35. Registration begins at 8 a.m.

Gurian has spent 20 years examining children's education issues, such as how their brains work and what affects how they learn and succeed.

Source: Tulsa World

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