Susan Rathjen

Susan Rathjen, LVSF Basic Literacy Coordinator: Susan, standing in the photo above on the far right with the latest group of Basic Literacy tutors, has a passion for teaching. Since 1973, she has been a certified teacher at the secondary level (6th-12th grades) in Language Arts, Fine Arts, and Drama. While teaching at SFCC in the Adult Education division, she started working with LVSF tutors to have them provide additional support and instruction to pre-high school equivalency students. She found that the tutors contributed so much more to the students’ education beyond academic skills, helping them to acquire and refine life skills to succeed in the workplace, with further education, and in the community. When the position for the Basic Literacy (BL) Coordinator opened up almost six years ago, Susan applied and was readily hired. One of the innovations that Susan introduced to the BL programs was to screen all BL students, so that any visual, auditory, attention, or learning issues could be identified and remedied, and to identify successful learning strategies for each student. Read more about Susan’s innovative work with the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility (SFCADF) in this issue.