Editor’s
My foundation was built on a love of reading from an early
age, thanks to parents who encouraged me. I grew up penning
stories of my own because I wanted to be a writer and see my
book on the shelves of the bookstores I loved so much. Fate
had a different path for me—journalism—but I have no doubt
that even being an editor in chief was born from the love of
that first musty, faded Laura Ingalls Wilder book I got from the
library. My love of books and what books have given me is what
led me to volunteer for Read Aloud West Virginia, a program
that places adult volunteers inside elementary classrooms to
help nurture an interest in reading. If I can give one child what
I was given, I will consider that a success.
When I attended orientation, I was struck by the facts the or-
ganizers shared in making their case for literacy. Consider these:
• If students are not reading on grade level by the third
grade, they are 13 times more likely to drop out of school.
• If they drop out of school, 90 percent of available jobs
will be off the table for them.
• Dropouts are more likely to abuse substances, become
teenage parents and be incarcerated.
Reading to children is about more than sharing a story with
them. West Virginia is at the crossroads of a changing economy,
and we need a healthy and educated workforce. In order to
prepare West Virginians for jobs, which will improve their
quality of life and drive the health of the economy, we have
to have a population that reads.
Kensie Hamilton Fauber, West Virginia Executive (WVE)
magazine’s publisher, and I spent six weeks on the road this
summer on a statewide college campus tour. We visited 25 pres-
idents from public and private four-year colleges and universities
as well as community and technical colleges. One of the most
prominent themes of our tour was that in order to have more
children go to college after high school, we have to impress
upon them the importance of a postsecondary education by
the fourth grade. We also have to ensure they have mastered the
basics of reading by then or they will struggle for the duration
of their education. I’m volunteering for Read Aloud because I
want to invest my time in my community, but I’m also doing
it to invest in the future of my state.
That investment means fulfilling a need when we see it, which
is how WVE ended up partnering with Jim Estep at the High
Technology Foundation on a new job search website. To be
launched this winter, this website will be different from others
because it will serve two purposes: it will allow West Virginians
who have moved away to search for the jobs that can bring them
back home, and it will provide a medium for West Virginia busi-
nesses to post opportunities and recruit other West Virginians.
With a dwindling population and an economy that continues
to struggle, we need West Virginians to come home, and in
order to do that, we have to be able to show them the jobs
that are available here.
It takes a village to raise a child, and I see West Virginia as one
big village. Let’s all do our part to ensure the next generation
is prepared to fight for the prosperity we long to see in the
Mountain State.
Jennifer Jett Prezkop
Editor in Chief
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