June 2007 - Quebec English Literacy Alliance

Beryl Kerrison - Trainer Extraordinaire
e are proud to announce that Beryl
W Kerrison, Head Trainer for Western
Quebec Literacy Council, has won
the Community Service in Education
Award from the Regional Association of
West Quebecers. She was honoured at
the Community Awards Gala on June 1 st
at the Maison du Citoyen in Hull.
Beryl Kerrison has been a volunteer tutor
since completing her tutor training in
1993. She began tutoring an adult literacy
student right away. That fall she began
the training certification process to
become a Tutor Trainer and started pre-
The Learning Exchange’s Celebration 2007
olunteers, students and staff of The
V Learning Exchange (TLE) in
Chomedey, Laval held their “Celebration
2007” on May 30 th in the Sir Wilfrid
Laurier CDC Laurier’s cafeteria.
senting workshops in 1994. Beryl remarks
that she realized that she could
tutor a good many more students by
training more tutors.
Beryl became Western Quebec Literacy
Council’s Head Trainer in 1996. In the
intervening eleven years she has trained
142 tutors!
Congratulations, Beryl. Thank you for
sharing the magic of tutoring and reading
with others.
Marilee DeLombard
Executive Director, WQLC
Along with staff, the evening was organized
by students and volunteers. Students
in Darlene Brown’s Basic English
class had prepared PowerPoint presentations
thanking the volunteers for their
time and dedication. Students also wrote
about why they thought “volunteers are
great…” and copies were put together for
all of the volunteers to take home. Special
certificates of achievement and recognition
were given by TLE’s President
Donna Adrian and Executive Director
Darlene Brown. Mehr, Masoda, Sebu
and Lisa were awarded student certificates
for their study efforts and Christiane,
Tabatha, Madeline and Cynthia
each received volunteer certificates for
their outstanding contribution to TLE’s
literacy program.
A special draw was held in which class
tutor Alan and student Christina won USB
memory sticks. Celebration 2007 was a
wonderful success!
Beryl Kerrison
The Riva Heft Hecht Scholarship
t the Quebec Association for Adult
A Learning’s Annual General Meeting
on May 26 th , QELA’s past President, Ilze
Epners, was presented the Riva Heft
Hecht Scholarship for excellence and
innovative practice in Adult Education
which consists of an award of $500 and a
framed certificate of excellence.
Ilze works for the largest English language
provider of distance education
(DE) in the province of Quebec. All English
language school boards in Quebec
have access to this service that offers
adult learners the opportunity to complete
their high school leaving diploma at a
distance and at a pace that suits them.
Individuals have easy access to the program
and one-to-one support from tutors.
Through Ilze’s energies, perseverance,
and commitment to adult education she
moved the existing DE program forward to
new heights, thus responding to a learning
need in the English-speaking community.
Her leadership has made it possible for
adult learners who might otherwise not
have had the prospects to do so, to complete
their DES.
This program serves as a model of a DE
delivery system for providing user-friendly
access and support to individuals who are
homebound, living in rural and remote
regions, as well as those travelling, in
hospitals and in prisons.
Congratulations, Ilze.
Ilze Epners
QELA CONTACT, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Mid-June 2007 Page 3