In Memoriam

The Richardson Adult Literacy Center (RALC) would like to pay tribute to long time volunteer teacher Joseph Renato Sperandeo who passed way at the age of 80 on Wednesday, February 7, 2024.

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Renato had a profound impact on the RALC program, RALC staff,  his fellow volunteer teachers and his students. He served as a RALC volunteer from 2008 through 2023. During his fifteen years with us, he taught our most advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) classes such as Level 4, Level 5, Advanced Conversation, and Advanced Writing. He regularly met with staff providing feedback on ways we could improve the program.

 

While Renato preferred teaching in person, during the COVID lockdown and afterwards, he learned and mastered the necessary technology to teach ESL classes online. Despite being in his late 70s, he was quite adept at using Zoom for his online classes and manipulating the digital textbook to enhance the learning of his students.

 

In addition to teaching, he helped recruit and train other volunteer teachers. Many of these volunteers are still with the program today making a positive difference. Those who are not teaching, often volunteer at special events or in another capacity that supports RALC programs. In fact, Renato regularly helped outside of the classroom with New Student Registration where he would administer oral and written assessments to hundreds of adult students seeking placement in RALC English classes.

 

The RALC program is a high caliber ESL program today because of the many years that Joseph Renato Sperandeo contributed to teaching students, recruiting and training volunteers, couseling staff, and enriching the curriculum. His legacy of inspiring others to engage in life long learning continues. His impact on the communities of North Texas is felt in the lives he touched through teaching. Renato will be greatly missed, but never forgotten.