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TALAE Recognizes Literacy Texas Board Member, Jon Engel, as Texas Adult Education Admin of the Year
Literacy Texas applauds Jon Engel on the TALAE recognition as 2012 Texas Adult Education Administrator of the Year. The Literacy Texas Board of Directors is honored to have Jon serving as a member of our Board and appreciates his time and expertise to champion better services for adult learners across Texas. Please read the full press release below.
The Texas Association of Adult Literacy Education recognized Jon Engel as Texas Adult Education Administrator of the Year on February 2 at the association’s annual conference in San Antonio. Engel, who has been active in the field of adult literacy education in Hays County and Central Texas since 1988, currently serves as the Adult Education Director at Community Action of Central Texas headquartered in San Marcos. In that capacity, he administers a program that offers 59 adult education classes in 29 locations across eight Central Texas counties surrounding Austin. The program serves about 1500 adults annually. Primary class offerings include GED preparation and English as a second language classes for adults of all ages in Central Texas. The program also offers an intensive College Prep Academy in San Marcos for adults who already have a high school diploma or GED and want to be successful in furthering their careers through postsecondary education and or occupational training.
In addition to his administrative work, Engel is widely recognized as a champion for the adult literacy education cause in Texas. As he noted in his acceptance remarks, “Nearly 1 in 4 Texans of workforce age are in need of adult literacy education services. If Texas wants to continue its impressive track record in job creation and economic competiveness, it must invest in the education and training of the nearly four million adults who need to improve their English proficiency and/or attain their GED diploma. Not only will each newly educated worker increase the State’s productivity, each newly educated parent will be better prepared to ensure their children’s success in school. It’s an intergenerational win-win investment”. With others, Engel has organized and led the Literacy Day at the Capitol event each of the last four legislative sessions. He has spent countless hours talking to state legislators and leaders about the importance and value of adult literacy education in Texas.
For over 25 years, Engel has been a leader in adult literacy in Central Texas. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas and Literacy Texas. He also serves on the Advisory Council of Texas LEARNS, the administrative entity that oversees all the federally and state funded adult education programs in the State. Engel began his career in adult education in 1988 at the San Marcos Public Library where he established the library’s adult literacy program that exists to this day. In 1990, he went on to Texas State University at San Marcos to direct a United States Department of Education funded National Workplace Literacy Demonstration project that developed curriculum and instruction for incumbent workers in the Manufacturing, Facilities Maintenance, and Child Care sectors of the greater San Marcos Workforce labor force. Engel became an employee of Community Action Inc. of Central Texas in 1992 when he developed and directed a national demonstration project designed to address the literacy and employability issues facing the parents of Head Start children. Community Action, Inc. of Central Texas (CAI) is a community based not for profit organization that has been in continuous operation since 1965 when it was established as part of this nation’s War on Poverty led by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Today its mission is to develop opportunities for people and communities and to realize their potential. Engel says “Community Action is a natural home for the adult education program. Adult literacy is at the core of what Community Action is all about”.
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Jon with Joanie Rethlake, State Director, Texas LEARNS
Visit TALAE to learn more about their purpose and services
Visit Community Action where Engel is an Adult Education Director
February 2012
