The day his roommate asked him to read an article from the newspaper, and Paul Arcand had to struggle to make out most of the words, is the day Paul remembers when asked what led him to LVA. It is hard to understand how Paul, then an 18-year-old high school graduate, had never learned to read past a fourth grade reading level. After his roommate phoned the school system and the state demanding to know how this student could have fallen through the cracks, he got in touch with a local library for assistance. Upon discovering the existence of Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. (LVA), Paul's roommate strongly urged him to go and get help. "He just told me, you're going," said Paul. "If it wasn't for him, I would still be trying to get by with lower paying jobs that don't require much reading."

In high school, Paul was placed in the same special education classes for three years, which did not offer him the opportunity he needed to progress with his education. He took shop class, where he earned credits learning how to weld, and could read just enough to get by with this skill. So, when he graduated from high school, he was employed as a spot welder. He learned how to interpret blueprints so that he could determine where to weld the spots on sheet metal, while keeping his literacy deficiency a secret.

With some hesitation, Paul attended his first LVA student meeting in 1993. He says he was very apprehensive about opening up, because he was embarrassed and thought he was the only one who had not received a proper education. Going to the introductory meetings and getting to know others who were living with similar circumstances was exactly what Paul needed to put him on the road to literacy. Right from the beginning, Paul became very involved as an LVA student leader. He began to understand, first hand, what he had heard from others to be true -- "Students must listen and learn from other students."

Within the first year of his involvement with LVA, Paul was chosen to represent other students from his Rhode Island affiliate at the 1993 LVA national conference, in Louisville, Kentucky. As their representative, Paul reported back to his fellow students, sharing what he had learned there. Since then, he has attended the LVA conference every year.

Presently, Paul is one of eight members of the LVA National Student Advisory Board. He continues to meet with his tutor three times a week, and was recently hired by LVA Rhode Island, an LVA state office, as the student services coordinator. Paul stated, "My main purpose is to reach other adults with literacy problems, to let them know that there are others out there, and that there are resources available to them." He is happy to work for LVA, because he sees it as a way to give back to the organization, in gratitude for how it has changed his life.

Paul has a new outlook on life and much higher self esteem since he has been with LVA. He says that he now looks at the positive things in life; he does not dwell on the negative. The opportunity to learn how to read, and finally feel that he can speak his mind, has given Paul the freedom to decide the direction that he would like to take in life, and the means by which to get there. With the hope of one day becoming a master chef, he plans on eventually going to college to learn the culinary arts. "I may be 60 when I graduate, but I'll get there."

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