India Post News Service

CHICAGO: Bhagwanti Pardasani, a tutor for Midwest Asian American Center located on Devon Avenue in Chicago was honored with an Outstanding Tutor Award last week at the On the Road to Literacy Conference. Awarded by Literacy Volunteers of Illinois and the University of Illinois at Chicago's Center for Literacy, Bhagwanti has been involved in the program for four years.

"Bhagwanti has a great sense of humor and an adorable personality, especially when working with limited English speaking elderly," says Vandana Dalal, her nominator for the Award. Dalal added that Bhagwanti understands the difficulties the students have and gears the programs to their needs.

The students trust her and share so many stories with her that she has moved far beyond her limited working hours to help them resolve their problems. Since July of 2007 to this day, Bhagwanti has assisted 80 students in successfully becoming proud citizens of America, which is a remarkable goal for MAAC.

There were also 12 students who received their driver's licenses after doing the rules of the road repeatedly in the classroom, where she literally translated every word in their language. For the past fours years she has tutored at the site and it has been a pleasure and an asset to have her with us. Literacy Volunteers of Illinois is an organization that is committed to developing and supporting volunteer literacy programs that help adults, families, and out of school teens increase their literacy skills.