I had a heart attack shortly after I had the high school diploma program graduation, and so I didn’t get a chance to do anything. It has helped me mentally knowing I got it; physically, knowing I could to do it; and it just made me feel taller, and made me feel like a better person by doing it.

How do you assess a newly found love of learning and its effect on family members? When mothers and fathers model their joy in learning by reading books, taking informal classes or enrolling in higher education, their children and grandchildren follow in their wake. A participant who earned a masters states: “My children know the value of an education, I think, more so now because of my educational pursuits.” A non-reader who advanced to ABE level and volunteers at a correctional facility explains: “What I did was set examples for my grandchildren. I have six grandchildren. They are A-B students and it makes me feel good." Learning to read opens a new world of independence for ESL participants and adult new readers. “Now since I know how to read and write, wherever I go, I feel more brighter and I can see where I’m going, what I’m doing, and understand better.” How do you place a value on self- sufficiency?

How and to what extent do increased self-confidence and self-efficacy enable other positive changes in successful learners’ lives?

The ability to solve problems and to deal with setbacks without fear is one result of increased self-confidence. “I think better than I did before. Before, a setback to me was a tragedy. It was like ‘Oh my goodness, there I go again. I can’t open that door and I don’t know how to open that door and I can’t figure it out.’ Now it’s like, ‘Let’s think about this. How do you get that door open because that door has to open? If you don’t open the door, it isn’t going to open. So you have to figure it out yourself.’ It doesn’t make it such a tragedy to me anymore.”

Participation in ABLE programs often leads to intentional change. “The GED is a beginning not an end.” With new attitudes toward life and new credentials, participants discussed their surprise and delight at being propelled into new “adventures” in careers and community affairs. Despite the extent of their achievements after ABLE completion, successful adult learners regarded the GED as the turning point in their lives. It was the first goal they set for themselves. It provided their first taste of success. From then on, they set out to reshape their lives in accordance with their dreams.

Collaborative ABLE programs build leadership skills. As adult learners traverse the continuum from setting and achieving their educational goals to mentoring and tutoring peers, they acquire leadership skills. When does the learner become a leader? Leadership skills are recognizable in both the former non-reader who is teaching a learning disabled teenager to recognize “letters” and the learning disabled adult who helped found a national organization.

The adult education experience is transformative. “It gave me a whole new life and a new respect for my life.” I was in a world but I wasn’t existing; I was just in the world. Now, I look at trees blooming and different things. I thought there was no one there to help. But there were people here and I thank God for the Center for Literacy. They made a different woman out of me.

Learning for life means “renaming” yourself, overcoming old myths, seeing challenges as opportunities, experiencing yourself as “important” and worthy of respect. ABLE participation encompasses far more than building basic education, critical thinking and workplace skills. For successful participants, the ABLE program provides an opportunity to learn “to become a better person, not necessarily the most educated person ...to find something inside yourself that you never knew you had.”