Meet Mya
This earnest-looking young lady with the big, soulful eyes is Mya. We met her back in 2020. She attends a local parochial school, but she is persistently behind her peers academically. Her mom found RITES, learned that we have a financial assistance program, and applied. In 2020, we were able to take Mya off the waitlist and offer her one-to-one tutoring with multisensory, systematic instruction to address her reading deficits. For the next year, meeting with her RITES teacher twice a week, she made slow, but steady, progress with her reading.
After the summer of 2020, Mya’s financial aid was used up. She no longer was able to receive tutoring from RITES because her family couldn’t afford it, and her family decided to see how the new school year would go without this extra support. Then Covid hit.
Mya’s World After Covid
Jump ahead to January 2021. Now, in addition to struggling with reading, Mya was falling behind in 
math, too. Her mom reached out to RITES again. Fortunately, because of generous donors like you, Mya was able to receive financial aid again and picked back up with her RITES teacher once a week, focusing on reading and math. Because of the pandemic, RITES pivoted to working with Mya virtually. All our multisensory strategies were transitioned to online versions and Zoom became the tutorial medium. While less than ideal, she made progress. But it still wasn’t enough…
More to Do
Again, because of our thoughtful financial assistance programs that are supported by people like you, Mya was able to receive partial funding to attend our 2021 three-week Rocking Reading and Megahit Math Summer Program in person. With masks up and a ‘“can-do” attitude, we charged in, and Mya benefitted from the small-group, hands-on instruction that RITES is known for. While it came with new challenges of returning to in-person class and still navigating the pandemic, Mya and her peers triumphed, learning and laughing (behind their masks) all along the way.
Mya’s Story Could end there…But it didn’t.
We had the privilege of working with Mya yet again this past summer. This time, your generous donation afforded her the opportunity to attend our five-week intensive Code Breakers: Unlocking Reading, Writing and Spelling Summer Program. Her reading was still lagging behind, impacted even further by the ongoing pandemic, and this program is designed to “pack a punch” in a short period of time. Did it help? You be the judge:
Help Mya Make It
There is more work to do to complete Mya’s success story, for sure. But we are making an impact. Mya is making significant progress. It is critical that she continue to receive the right instruction, for the proper duration, to actually catch up to where she should be. It takes time, expertise, and money. We have the time and the expertise. With your continuing donation, we’d have the trifecta for Mya to win!
