Most people don’t find their calling in high school, but thanks to a life-long passion for education and the mentorship of his grandmother (former executive director of the Literacy Council) Ryan Breisch has already spent nearly three decades helping adult students in Berks learn the skills they need to succeed.
You have a quite a long history with the Literacy Council; how did you get started? I do! This past October it was 25 years. When I was in high school, I wanted to teach math, so I started to volunteer at the Literacy Council. I was teaching English, but it still gave me exposure. I spent my whole summer after tenth grade developing a curriculum to be used in three levels of ESL (English as a second language) and creating a system by which the teachers could monitor the completion of the students’ competency requirements. Following that summer, the board hired me part-time to maintain that system, and about a year later they asked if I wanted to teach a class.
How did you make the jump from math to English and literacy? Well, after two years in the math department at Kutztown University I got to Calculus 4 and decided I didn’t want to be a math teacher anymore; I couldn’t do the math! I was doing well in my Spanish courses, so I decided to change my major from math to Spanish and ultimately decided not to explore the education degree. Through my field experiences, I was seeing teachers do more disciplining than instructing. At the council my students were thanking me, not throwing spitballs. I realized then that my calling was helping the adults at the Literacy Council.
In addition to ESL, what other services does the Literacy Council provide? We offer citizenship preparation three times a year, and we also have a high school equivalency program. We also provide soft-skills training, working with businesses to provide job shadowing for second language students who may have a cultural barrier to employment. We’re also building our workforce development program; I would really like the community and employers to look at us as a resource for their lower-skilled workers. We can give them the reading, writing and math skills they need to do their jobs better.
And you provide all these services for free? That’s correct, because of funding that we get from the United Way of Berks County. They have been very generous to us over the years as one of their partner agencies, and we are truly grateful for their support. We’re also funded by the Adult Literacy division of the Department of Education.
Do you ever get a day off? Not many, but I do try to stay involved in the community outside of the council. I have three sons, and my wife and I try to be as active as we can in their education. They’re involved in sports so we’re always out cheering them on, and my two oldest are also in Cub Scouts. We’re also very active in our church; we attend Alsace Lutheran in Reading, where we sing in the choir and I teach Sunday School every week.
No Time Like the Present.
Registration for the ESL program is March 5. There are two sessions: 9am at Trinity Lutheran Church and 5pm at Muhlenberg Elementary Center. Free classes begin March 11.
Get Involved.
The Council’s most pressing need is for volunteer tutors. If you can read, write and speak English you can help others reach their full potential! Visit lcrb.org for more info.
