WE LEARN 2009: Keynote Address
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WE LEARN 2009 - KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Featured Speaker: Donna Jones
Donna Jones, Adult Learner from California, has been an advocate for Adult Literacy at the local, state and national levels. She writes the Student Column for the WE LEARN newsletter. Her tutor has taken her from crayons to computers. Donna's Program Director has taken her from the back of the room to the front of the room to speak out for and to other Adult Learners -- so they, too, will step up, speak out and become leaders. Donna believes Adult Literacy should be available for all adults. Come hear her words and be inspired to become a leader and take action now.
Report:
When Donna Jones, the 2009 conference keynote speaker, took the stage clad in a lavender WE LEARN t-shirt, comfy pants, and flip flops-- because Mev Miller, the WE LEARN director, told her not to wear her sandals, I knew she was going to give a memorable speech. Donna hails from San Francisco, which may explain her choice of footwear as well as her gracious understanding when I called her for a telephone interview we had scheduled to do a few days after the conference and jolted her out of a good night’s sleep at 7 a.m.. We had planned to talk at 10 a.m., and I forgot to take into account the three-hour time difference between the east and west coasts.
Donna captured the theme of this year’s conference “Stronger Leadership & Literacy: Empowering Women to Action” by sharing her “words of experience of wisdom,” as Mev phrased it when she introduced Donna to the crowd of adult learners, literacy practitioners, college students, community activists, and education researchers and advocates. On that Friday morning, Donna engaged our minds and bodies with her interactive style. With her lead, we all exclaimed, “Literacy is a human right and everybody is entitled to be literate!” And we believed it!
Using the visual of various-sized footsteps that she cut out and placed on the stage floor, Donna recounted her journey from an invisible child to an emerging learner to a fully formed and inspiring leader. The crowd cheered when she proclaimed, “I am a woman who is a leader.” In her unassuming style, she explained, “I wasn’t proclaiming it for myself, but I wanted the audience to see themselves as leaders.”
Donna’s journey started with baby steps when she found a supportive community at Project Read, an adult literacy program in her community. When I asked her why she decided to go back to school, she explained pragmatically that she needed more job skills. Her decision to enter the classroom at age 47 was a very challenging one. She did it only after trying to teach herself the writing skills she wanted to learn and realizing that she couldn't do it alone.
Initially, her goal was “to learn commas and get out of there.” She credits her tutor, George Santore, with helping her to realize that she was capable of learning anything she put her mind to. With George's encouragement she stepped into a computer class. When she became frustrated and scared because as she put it, "I wasn't getting it," she found reassurance from Project Read's program director, Leslie Shelton. During one of their conversations, Donna mentioned that it would be nice to hear about the experiences of other learners. Her curiosity and desire to connect with others landed her a spot on Project Read's Learner Planning Team. From those first baby steps, Donna has continued to challenge herself and grow as a leader, which she defined as "someone who sees a need and can fill it or find another person to fill it."
Inviting everyone in the audience to come to the stage and take a footstep, Donna encouraged us all to start where we are and join her on the journey. She shared the reasons she has stayed engaged, explaining, “I’m trying to give back what other people gave to me.” In the spirit of participatory learning, in which she discovered her voice, she offered the crowd of enthusiastic women this advice: “Always remain teachable.”
Donna’s message of empowering the audience to see themselves as leaders definitely made an impact. Shellie Waters, who has been friends with Donna for the past six years since they met at a ProLiteracy conference described Donna's speech as “wonderful” and said that her words remind us of the leaders we often forget we are.
The women at the Project Hope table who were the most vocal in the audience were inspired by Donna’s personality and sense of humor. Bettie shared, “She gave me a lot of strength, positive energy, and hope. She lifted my self-esteem. I am so thankful I met her.” Deborah summed up her message this way: “When she touched my heart is when she talked about staying humble and telling you to keep telling yourself you’re a leader. Also, her demonstration of cutting out the feet- that was awesome!”
