With the mindset that empowering disadvantaged students starts with empowering parents, the advocate group Read by Third will raise funds and awareness with a luncheon next week.

The group partners with elementary schools in Bryan to provide monthly forums for parents to meet with teachers and learn about topics ranging from reading tips to nutrition fundamentals. Organizers are inviting the community to a fundraiser luncheon Tuesday at the Hilton in College Station.

The organization was founded by Bryan attorney Daniel Hernandez, who says the premise of the group is the idea that students who don’t read by third grade are set up for failure. The organization cites research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that shows students who are not able to read at grade level in third grade have only a 20 percent chance of catching up to their peers.

To help these students, Hernandez said the organization focuses on getting parents involved.

“Studies show that the most influential people in a child’s life are parents, because they inspire and they support — or they discourage. Or, they create environments that are so stressful the children can’t do well,” he said.

The monthly forums take place at Milam, Jones and Fannin elementary schools, where Read by Third brings in anyone from teachers and police officers to psychologists and nutritionists.

“It’s an exchange, an opportunity for teachers to talk to parents and parents to talk to teachers to feel comfortable with each other,” Hernandez said.

He said the group also takes children and their parents on trips to places such as the Museum of Natural History and to various events at his alma mater, Texas A&M University.

He said the group also brings in first-generation students at Texas A&M to talk about their experience and how their parents helped them get to where they are. The idea, Hernandez said, is for parents to realize “that could be my kid in another 10 years.”

“The parent, or whoever is at home, might have two or three jobs, but once the parents sees the potential for their child, envisions their children being in college, being successful, they’re going to make the sacrifices,” he said.

Hernandez said he wouldn’t be he is today without the vision his mother and father, who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s.

“[My mother] never spoke English very well, she didn’t go past the first grade in Mexico. My dad didn’t speak English very well, but they had a vision,” he said, later adding “Now we have 18 graduates from A&M in this family.”

Bryan resident Crystal Martinez has two children in Bryan schools and attends the monthly meetings. She said it’s been great getting to do various activities on Texas A&M’s campus, such as attending a basketball game and meeting the school’s mascot and members of the Corps of Cadets. But she said she is more grateful to the group for introducing her to tips for reading with her 9-year-old daughter and to the application process for Deerfoot Youth Camp.

The summer camp in Magnolia gives disadvantaged boys who attend a scholarship to Texas A&M University. Martinez applied for her son to attend after hearing about it through Read by Third.

“That’s life-changing for my son, and if I can get him on the track, my daughter will know what to expect,” she said, adding that she’s not sure how she would have found out about the program if it weren’t for Read by Third.

These kind of connections are exactly what Hernandez hopes for.

He said the program has only helped about 30 to 60 families each year in the four years it’s been around. He said it’s not much, but he’s hopeful the organization can reach enough families to empower a community.

“Let’s say there are 700 kids in a school. We can’t get to all 700 families,” he said. “But if we can help 15-20 percent of those families into this mindset, they will change the culture of this school.”

Source: The Eagle