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Dr. Gina: My name is Dr. Gina Doepker. I’m an associate professor in the department of
Early Childhood and Special Education in the Dewar College of Education and Human Services.
I’m also the Director of the Sullivan Literacy Center here in the College of Education. The
mission of the Sullivan Literacy Center is to be an integrated system of care for the
children and families of Valdosta and the surrounding areas. By integrated I mean we
provide literacy services both in reading and writing for these children to help to
get them motivated to want to read and write which will build their literacy skills and
confidence and motivation. We’ve had many success stories told by parents and grandparents
of these children about how much reading and writing these kids are doing. One of my goals
in the literacy center is to increase their confidence. We had one child who really struggled
with reading and writing and over several semesters their skills increased to the point
that on the very last day they got in front of the entire crowd of three hundred people
and read a motivational speech that they wrote; which was just wonderful. My motto for the
literacy center is: we read to learn, we read to laugh, we read to live, we live to read.
[Music fades out]