One of my favorite things about Shine Reading Academy is the plentiful garden. It’s filled with tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and greens. To me, the garden symbolizes new growth and new life.

Along with the garden, grow the students of Shine Reading Academy. The school is producing readers and writers – students motivated to learn and extend their thinking. Students who are carefully tended to by thoughtful and caring teachers. The children are encouraged to go beyond the poverty surrounding them, to see the brighter possibilities of reaching up and out like the plants in the garden moving toward the sun.