Literacy Luminary

By Kim Nagy, September 23, 2023
Elisa Rodriguez ’14 is helping to shape the future, one student at a time.

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Elisa Rodriguez ’14 is a literacy educator on a mission for her students and for the field of education itself. “I want to put a plea out there for future educators,” said Rodriguez. “It’s such an important role for our world. It takes a certain kind of heart.”

Nominated for the International Literacy Association’s 30 under 30—an award that celebrates the rising innovators, disruptors, and visionaries in the literacy field—Rodriguez currently serves as president of the Seven Valley Reading Council. She also works as an academic intervention specialist for Newfield Elementary School in Newfield, New York, just a few miles outside of Ithaca.

Reading is a joy for Rodriguez, who sports a tattoo of her favorite novel, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Mulan Kundera, on her back. But she also knows that literacy creates a vital gateway for connecting more fully to the world, whether you are reading for pleasure, filling out a job application, or following street signs.

“I think it’s important to take a moment to think about what the world would be like if you couldn’t read or write because it would just so completely change your experience,” said Rodriguez. “If you can’t read text, if it is not accessible to you, you’re so limited in terms of what you can do. You’re given an unfair barrier. It’s kind of like looking through tissue paper where you have the things, but you just can’t access them.”

Rodriguez had teachers and professors who provided deep support and encouragement to her as she grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and as a student at IC. She moved to Ithaca during Hurricane Irene in 2011. “It was a deluge!” she laughed. But she was also struck by the scenery and the warmth of the community right away. “It felt inclusive and welcoming in a way where you really wanted to be a part of it,” she remembered.

“I think it’s really important to show students that it’s okay to have preferences.”

Elisa Rodriguez '14

At IC, Rodriguez appreciated the small class sizes, which prompted vigorous class discussion about a range of subjects. “It felt very contemporary, very current. We were centered on the newest educational practices. It was around 2011, so that was around the time of No Child Left Behind and all those different educational acts. We were looking at individualizing education and data-driven instruction,” said Rodriguez, who describes herself as a “numbers person in a humanities body.”

Rodriguez also worked in IC’s information technology department as a student coordinator and helped plan Ed Tech Day for two years, which boosted her skills in planning and leadership. By the time she reached graduate school, she felt well-versed in the concepts that were influencing the field of education: “Ithaca really prepared me to feel confident as a leader.”

Rodriguez wants young learners to know that reading can feel “muddy at first” and rarely offers a lightbulb moment. As a guide (a term she prefers to teacher), she helps budding readers navigate the journey in their own way. “I think it’s really important to show students that it’s okay to have preferences,” she said. For instance, if turning on the subtitles of video games helps them practice their reading, she’s on board. “Is that the only way I want you to read? No. But is that a great way to get your foot in the door? Yes, and that is what matters to me at the end of the day.”

Most of all, Rodriguez loves watching her students (whom she calls the “youth of America”) become prepared to succeed as skilled readers and critical thinkers: “It’s so nice to see the triumph in their minds and bodies.”