Tra & Alana's Reading for Life Literacy Program

I use my celebrity (I was in the first class of students on the hit Fox show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader”) and my youth to be a peer advocate of reading. By leveraging my time and national exposure on “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader”, Alana has given children her own age a tangible role model for reading success. I have networked with other celebrities to help me in my quest to provide these children with an excitement and joy for reading. Through “Alana’s Achievers,” my friends and I ignite in children, who would otherwise not have access to the incentives they provide, a purpose and goal for reading. The immediate benefits are seen in the kids, but ultimately all of society will benefit. Many of these children do not have the resources to be “good” readers and may not understand the importance of reading. By raising good readers, this generation will not have the literacy issues that plague low-income communities, like decreasing the drop out rate among high schools within these communities. Because the program focuses on “reading for life,” “Alana’s Achievers” hopes to create a well-read adult in the work-force. “Alana’s Achievers” provides students mentorship at school, during actual class time. Since Alana cannot miss school herself every Tuesday, “Alana’s Achievers” is currently in the process of creating community collaborations with local corporations such as Kohls & Wal-Mart to volunteer during the school day. This partnership will be very important to “Alana’s Achievers” to continue the goal of fostering the love of reading in other children. Alana is also recruiting other corporate sponsors and other volunteers to assist in making “Alana’s Achievers” more widespread.