44 million adults in the U.S. can’t read well enough to read a simple story to a child, according to The Literacy Company website which helps people with obtaining reading skills.

The new Reading Success Center has been implemented at EC to help people with homework as well as to reinforce students with reading skills.

Students like Quadre Singletary, 18, photography major, are utilizing the new Reading Success Center to help them with their homework needs.

“It’s my first year in college, so coming here’s very helpful,” Singletary said. “I’m in here every morning, since the first day of school.”

The center, which first opened its doors in the Schauerman Library east basement at the beginning of this semester, celebrated with an open house  last Tuesday.

“The reading faculty saw a definite need for this service,” Sheryl Kunisaki, Reading Success Coordinator and ESL instructor, said.

“We have a great Writing Center, but we found that a lot of students could use a little bit of extra help reading before the writing,” she added.

Funding for the Reading Success Center came from the federal Title V Graduation Initiative Project grant.

The grant was awarded to EC as part of the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program.

But Kunisaki said that the free drop-in tutoring, available at the center from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday, is aimed at serving a diverse array of students and in any class for which they need reading assistance.

“It doesn’t have to be a reading class— somebody might come here with a history book— we help students implement strategies for textbook reading,” Kunisaki said.

Students of all reading levels, not just those with introductory reading skills, are also encouraged to utilize the Reading Success Center, tutor Amanda Edwards said.

“It can really help anyone,” Edwards said. “It’s for good readers who want to read better.”

Jaxon Smith, 20, general studies major, who plans to transfer to UCLA as a Spanish-Portuguese major, said he will use the center to “help with evaluating Mark Twain’s ‘Pudd’nhead Wilson’, to write a good essay,” for his English 1C class.

In addition to tutoring, the Reading Success Center offers instruction on use of supplemental software like Total Reader, which aids in reading comprehension, as well as Ultimate Speed Reader, which improves reading speed.

“What’s nice about having a reading center is, so often the skill of reading text and evaluating it at a college level is kind of overlooked because, really, there’s so much to teach and learn in just one writing class,” Edwards said.