Anne Marie Chuckrey is the Director of the Springs Learning Center. Anne Marie was a Spanish/French teacher for 37 years, teaching at Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, Ct and Naugatuck High School in Naugatuck Ct. She retired in 2015 from Naugatuck High School as the Department Head of Languages for 12 years, and she also served as an Adjunct Professor of Spanish at Quinnipiac University for 34 years. Anne Marie holds a BA in liberal arts with a concentration in Spanish and French from Albertus Magnus College, an MBA in Business Administration from the University of New Haven, and a 6th year in Administration from Southern Connecticut State University.
Anne Marie became a tutor at Springs Learning Center in 2021.
Olivia Jackson began her service as an administrative assistant at Springs Learning Center. Olivia is from New York, but has lived in Georgia, New Jersey, Michigan and Connecticut. She studied at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY, completing two years of a Criminal Justice program, and a year at Penn Foster.
Olivia has worked to help manage human service programs for more than a decade. She enjoys poetry, reading, and contemporary dance.
The Springs Learning Center is funded entirely by a combination of donated services, corporate and civic donations, individual gifts, and grants from foundations and other organizations, including Albertus Magnus College and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
The annual cost per learner at the Springs Learning Center is about $250, which includes books, materials, and fixed costs like rent and utilities.
We are grateful for the many individuals and organizations that partner with us to achieve our mission and goals, including our volunteers, donors, advisory council members, and other organizations with whom we collaborate.
If you would like to donate to help the Springs Learning Center, click here.
The Springs Learning Center is affiliated with:
“Education has always been one of the primary ministries of the Dominican Sisters,” explains Sr. Margaret Mary Kennedy, a Dominican Sister of Peace and Director of Springs Learning Center. She notes that her congregation of Sisters has provided educational and pastoral services in New Haven, CT, since 1901 in elementary, secondary, and college settings. “Eight years before this Center opened, we had established a highly successful literacy ministry in Columbus, OH,” she continues. “Recognizing the growing adult literacy and ESL needs here in New Haven, the Dominican Sisters opened Springs Learning Center in 2002 to continue our educational mission in the Fair Haven area.”
Today the Center is flourishing. Through the hard work and dedication of a few staff members and a group of wonderful volunteer tutors, the Center provides a holistic literacy program with one-to-one tutoring in a caring and peaceful environment, serving an average of 100 learners each year.
The volunteer tutors at the Springs Learning Center come from many local Catholic parishes and from the former St. Mary’s High School, with an average of 45 to 55 individuals volunteering each year. The Center provides necessary training and materials to tutors, who are then asked to commit to tutoring an individual learner for one hour a week for a year.
While there is a special emphasis on English as a Second Language (ESL), the Springs Learning Center provides an integrated program which includes instruction in reading and writing. The overall goal of the Center is to provide individual tutoring in basic literacy skills, to build job readiness, and to develop self-esteem for adult learners through talents and resources of the Dominican Sisters and others in the local community.
Just as important, the Center helps guide new arrivals to the United States through the steps necessary to succeed, such as obtaining a driver’s license or ID and preparing for the Citizenship test.
“Many of our adult learners have accomplished the goals for which they began taking class,” says Sr. Margaret Mary. “It’s always a blessing to celebrate with our learners when they earn promotions at work or become naturalized citizens.”
The Springs Learning Center is funded by a combination of donated services, corporate and civic donations, individual gifts, and grants from foundations and other organizations.