Alumna creates Tutoring Program for Children

A few years ago Kerri Saulnier (MEd ’97, Special Education), a teacher at The Schenck School in Atlanta, GA saw a need and filled it. In 2009, Saulnier founded the pro bono tutoring program, Schenck Helping Individuals in Need Excel (SHINE), for students with reading difficulties. SHINE’s one-on-one tutoring is provided at no charge to children ages 5 to 15 with documented reading difficulties and demonstrated financial need. All SHINE tutors are volunteers. “Any teacher will tell you that it’s thrilling to teach a child to read,” says Saulnier, SHINE director. “Effective reading intervention and remediation can be very expensive and hard to find. Through this community outreach, SHINE tutors are dedicated to lighting the candle of reading against the darkness that illiteracy will mean over a child’s lifetime.”

Saulnier was also the winner of the 2010 Service Award from The Georgia Branch of the International Dyslexia Association for her tutoring program. The award is “in appreciation and recognition of dynamic and creative leadership in education and outstanding efforts to promote and encourage literacy, reading, and student achievement.”  Kerri Saulnier earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1996 and her Master’s Degree in 1997 from the University of Florida, with a concentration in Special Education.