Why we are here... 

A telling story of why we are here is a story of an ESL student at a Learning Center in Alabama named Eduardo who came to know and accept Jesus into his life.  His tutor and Learning Center Director rejoiced at the impact the Project Light program had on Eduardo’s life.  A few weeks later Eduardo missed several tutoring sessions.  The tutor concerned, inquired about him, it was discovered that Eduardo had been killed in a head-on automobile collision by a drunk driver.  We will miss Eduardo.  His story  lives on as a testament to the power of 1:1 relationships being developed every day in Project Light Learning Centers around the world and the impact on the eternity of their students.

More testimonies

Below are only a few of the many testimonies from Learning Center Directors, Tutors and Students about the Project Light program…

“Parents and students are pleased with improved grades. An 18 year old young man got his GED. Through the 14 years of our [Project Light] reading program more than 100 students have been served.”

 “The [Project Light] program is ‘the best kept secret in Norfolk’.

“A Ukrainian orphan in first grade, who had been in this country only 6 months, knew only 3 of the 40 most common words in September 2005 when he started [Project Light] ESL lessons in the pre-reading program. In May 2006 he had progressed to a grade 1.1 reading level.”

“A second-grader with us only one year was on medication for ADD and yet unable to focus very well. I saw his Mom while shopping the following fall and she thanked me profusely for helping him succeed in school. He had become his teacher’s reading “assistant” to help classmates who were having problems.”

“One fourth-grader who is in several Special Education classes has brought her reading grade from a “D” the first report card this year to a “B” on the Feb. 2 report card. This is her second year in the program.”

“…As a Project Light Program Director and Tutor, I have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit touching people’s lives as only God can touch them. The Project Light software enables us to fulfill Christ’s Great Commandment to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ and offer him Christ.”

“Last year I started working with Project Light as a tutor in Redwood City, CA and after seeing how God changed the life of some students through the program, I decided to go to Guatemala and start using the program with children… I know that God is working with children in Guatemala and with the program they will get to know Jesus.”

“My favorite story is about Toby, a third grader who had been retained because of her reading ability. Toby’s mother was a GED student and she asked if there was anyway I could help her daughter. I had not worked with children before but I took a chance. Toby would only call words because of the way they started but after about 2 weeks she was more confident in her reading, the words had meaning but the biggest increase was in her self confidence. She began to feel she was worthy and her self worth increased. She was passing the next 6 weeks and went on to be promoted to the 4th grade.”

“Sonja wanted to go to Beautician School but lacked her high school degree. As we started on the GED program Sonja just sat and stared at the monitor screen. After about 15 minutes she had to admit that she could not read. Without missing a beat I converted her to Project Light from the GED program and no one in her class was the wiser.”

“Adriana is the mother of 4 children and didn’t have her High School Degree. Her husband was in prison and she was working at a meat packing plant to support these 4 children. She would come in 4 afternoons a week and work on the [BLS Tutorsystems] GED Program [supplied by Project Light] after 9 months she was ready to take her test, I found a source of funding for her test and she took it and passed. After 2 months I got a phone call asking for a letter of recommendation, she was applying for PELL Grants. She is now attending a Community College and is working on a Business Degree.”

“Our evening Project Light class has 10 students. Some have been coming to this class for the last 2 years. About a year ago the conversation time at the end of the lesson developed into Bible study, where most of the students shared their thoughts and feelings. The students also started asking for specific prayer requests. The Lord answered many of these prayers which strengthened everyone’s faith tremendously! All praise to God! Some of our student’s English [has] improved so much that they could apply for better jobs. One lady completed her studies for a nurse and is currently working in the private sector. Another lady received a bursary(should we define bursary?-Scholarship) for further studies. Most students’ confidence in the English language has grown a lot and great friendships have been established.”

“I truly enjoyed the Project Light training. The special part of course is how the ESL is combined with The Light Is Coming. Churches really have to get on board with Project Light to reach the many.”

A 5 year old boy, Charles, whose mother speaks French and a little English - After 1 year with [Millicent] Charles is doing well – he has completed TLC [“The Light is Coming”] and some Zero-to-Five [part of Project Light program]. “His school and parents are amazed at this progress in English!”

“It has been great working with kids and following their progress. I enjoy seeing those kids realize they can read and it is great getting to spend time with the little children and having Bible time each day.”

“One adult, 65 years old, coming once a week, never learned to read as a child. Moved too often she was told she was “dumb & stupid” and would “never learn to read”. She is doing great...”

“We also have a Military officer from Spain who has progressed out of the Project Light Software; as well as a business woman from South Korea who is strengthening her English skills.”

“ …As a language therapist who worked with individual students in a one-to-one setting, I discovered that one of the greatest factors in fostering and encouraging academic improvement in language arts and reading skills in students hinges on the unique one-to-one relationship potential between student and instructor which may develop through consistent and ongoing instructional sessions. I have also discovered that this is one of the strongest positive factors inherent to the Project Light program. Project Light tutoring sessions not only foster academic improvement for the student, but also encourage students to discover their sense of self-worth and help them to develop “I can do it” attitudes about other areas of their lives through relationships between students and tutors. Within only a few months of beginning our Learning Center, I am seeing students improve their self-image and their reading skills within the Project Light program. Students do not have to be “forced” to come for lessons or to complete homework…they enjoy coming and working!”

“Through repetition of words and concepts, the student can quickly build a strong working vocabulary, and the tutor can identify and address weaknesses in the student’s skills which may need further help. The Project Light program also greatly assists in this process by evaluating students’ skills through pre-testing before each unit and post-testing at the end of each unit and by assigning computer lessons in the software which address each student’s own reading and language weaknesses.”

“…as a teacher and professional Academic Language Therapist, there are three major criteria most important to successful remediation of reading and language arts skills. These criteria include: 1. Development of a trusting one-to-one relationship between student and instructor 2. Recognition that every student has stronger and weaker sensory learning modalities and teach through activities and materials that require involvement of each of those modalities 3. A combination of both whole language and phonetic teaching activities which can be most successful in building vocabulary and in identifying, addressing, and remediation of reading and language arts skill weaknesses

Through the Learning Center at which I now work, I have found that the Project Light software program is most successfully meeting the above criteria for helping students of all ages with remediation needs in reading and language arts in English as their primary language, as well as providing a successful and comprehensive program for teaching English as a Second Language to speakers of other languages.”