More than 100 high school students from across Berks County gathered recently at the Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading for the inaugural Read Alliance Youth Summit.<\/p>\n
The event was organized by United Way of Berks County to celebrate teen literacy tutors and encourage leadership development.<\/p>\n
The daylong summit brought together students participating in Read Alliance, a program that trains and pays high school students to tutor first graders in reading using a phonics-based curriculum.<\/p>\n
For many students, organizers said, the program\u2019s impact extends beyond literacy instruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I think about this program, the word that comes to mind is impact, not just on our younger students, but on us as tutors, too,\u201d Hannah Rivera, a four-year participant in the program, said in a statement. \u201cThe relationships we\u2019ve built, the confidence we\u2019ve gained and the skills we\u2019ve learned have made a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
The initiative, launched locally in partnership with the Reading School District in 2021, expanded to the Gov. Mifflin School District during the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n
Organizers said the summit\u2019s \u201cUNSTOPPABLE\u201d theme was meant to recognize the perseverance and impact of the teen tutors, while also exposing them to career opportunities and leadership lessons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese tutors play a powerful role in our community,\u201d Tammy White, president of United Way, said in a statement. \u201cTheir dedication not only helps young students strengthen essential reading skills but also builds a stronger future for Berks County.\u201d<\/p>\n
The summit included leadership workshops, peer networking sessions and Leadership Lightning Rounds, during which students met with business and community leaders to discuss leadership qualities and career pathways.<\/p>\n
Jay Sidhu, executive chairman of Customers Bank, delivered the keynote address, sharing lessons about persistence and resilience drawn from his book \u201cNever Ever, Ever Give Up.\u201d<\/p>\n
David W. Patti, special assistant to the executive chair at Customers Bank, praised the students\u2019 contributions to younger children and families throughout the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir work makes a measurable difference for children and families,\u201d Patti said.<\/p>\n
The event concluded with remarks from Dr. Khalid Mumin, Reading School District superintendent.<\/p>\n
United Way officials said early literacy is one of the strongest indicators of long-term academic success and economic stability.<\/p>\n
The organization\u2019s reading initiatives focus on helping children achieve grade-level reading proficiency by the end of third grade.<\/p>\n
Since the program launched in Berks, officials said, Read Alliance has engaged 489 teen tutors who have supported 743 young learners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100 high school students from across Berks County gathered recently at the Santander Performing Arts Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,6512,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,1114,3198,706],"class_list":["post-195664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-cumru-township","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-shillington","tag-spring-township","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}