For his steadfast dedication to our mission and purpose, Literacy Services of Wisconsin is happy to recognize John Shefchik as our July Volunteer of the Month. His dedication is most recently demonstrated with all the incredible work he and his volunteer colleagues have accomplished in developing online content for the Adult Secondary Education (ASE) website. John is a modest and motivated volunteer, but his guidance and support of the ASE volunteer project team in the massive endeavor of transitioning content and materials to an online format has been indispensable.
John Shefchik began tutoring in the ASE Program area in 2013 in support of people preparing for a GED or for entrance to a career in the construction skilled trades. In 2017, he took on the additional role of providing important and varied administrative support within the program. Among other projects, John has been working closely with David Peters, our Downtown ASE Program Coordinator, in building creative and interactive tools that will expand and strengthen the program’s distance learning capability.
This past year, they began working with a small team of volunteers to create video/quiz sets for use in the social studies and science curricula. Once LSW closed for COVID-19 safety precautions, this project team grew to over fourteen volunteers. Fueled by his background in IT and project management, John developed a process and oversaw a self-regulated team of dedicated volunteers in the production of over 85 (and counting) digital pretests, post-tests, unit reviews, and assessments. These are being implemented in the developing ASE program website which will support the program’s distance learning offerings. To organize the work, John created and maintained a spreadsheet with the following tasks: creation, quality assurance, and testing for mobile-friendliness. He also led team meetings and trained several team members via video conferencing. Through John’s up-beat and solution-focused oversight, the project team banded together and the work picked up speed. Though he has clocked hundreds of service hours in recent months, John recognizes and appreciates that this project would not be where it is without the efforts of the following volunteers: Don Mallinger, Rich Kane, Pauli Jeffers, Chris Colby, Janis Hancock, Jenni Slusarczyk, John Beckwith, Marcy Larson, Mary Beth Harkness, Nancy Pajewski, Sara Risley, Melissa Lewis, and Jee Schally.
John is deeply appreciative for David’s compassion and motivation to care for others as well as for all the volunteers that step up to work together. Says David, “John’s mantra is ‘What do you need me to do?’ He is relentlessly positive, can-do, and encouraging. He is truly a gift that keeps on giving.”