Wherever Beverly Jenkins goes, her books go with her. It’s a habit she picked up when she first enrolled at Literacy Partners in 2009. Before coming to Literacy Partners, Beverly was one of the 1.1 million adult New Yorkers without a high school diploma and low literacy skills.
Beverly battled a grim past scarred by years of unimaginable abuse, debilitating addiction, and a constant struggle to understand the world around her. “I couldn’t understand, because I simply couldn’t read,” she says. Before becoming a teenager, Beverly dropped out of school and ran away from home.
Beverly was in her early forties, but read at a second-grade level, when she enrolled in our adult literacy classes. Five years later, she earned a high school equivalency degree and read her personal essay at our 2014 Gala. The audience was rapt by her tale of running away from home to escape an abusive father and the lifetime of addiction and homelessness that followed. Beaming with pride as she recounted overcoming these adversities, Beverly declared: “I want to be of service to others…I want my story to be an example for others.”
Now finishing her second year at Hostos Community College, the 61-year-old mother and book lover is committed to helping others as she trains to become a substance abuse counselor. She was encouraged by a professor to pursue this field and with her perseverance has already earned her trainee accreditation.
“Learning to read changed my life completely. I’m now planning my life and future on my terms!”