New IVC Service Corp Member, Shirley Trusty Corey, has a rich history of serving in the arts and educational arenas. She helped found the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts Public High School, and led the New Orleans Arts Council for nearly two decades. She read about IVC in the Jesuit Central and Southern Magazine and decided it might be a good use of her extra time.
She joined IVC, New Orleans in September 2020 and was matched with the YMCA Educational Services (YES!) program in November. Two years ago, the YES! program had to lay off all but two of their staff due to budget cuts. YES! was trying to support 60+ adult students with two full-time staff and one part-time volunteer teacher.
Shirley sprang into action. While she was taking the five-course online certification program for adult literacy instruction, she used her volunteer time to help the two staff people, Mary and Andrea, with filing, grading, diagnostic reporting, and other necessary administrative duties. Now both certified and fully vaccinated, Shirley goes to the downtown New Orleans Public Library on Monday and Friday afternoons to work one-on-one with adult students, both virtually and in-person. Shirley says, “The bravery of these students gives me courage to be brave.”
“We are so happy to have Shirley serving with us. She is so positive and encouraging. She seems to be excited to be here and is happy to help with anything that we need. She gladly completed an online volunteer training so that she would be more comfortable tutoring students and is learning great new computer skills in order to be able to assist with in-person and remote tutoring… I love her willingness to try and learn new things.”– Andrea Gazaway, Instruction Coordinator YMCA Educational Services “