Tea Ragsdale is an AmeriCorps member serving as a Literacy Lab tutor at Saunders Elementary School. She has worked in office and property management jobs, but never felt that her personality and creativity were seen as assets in those roles.

“I think, with AmeriCorps, I’ve found my tribe,” she reflects. “I chose to serve with the Literacy Lab simply because reading got me through some difficult times, from an early age to the present day. As a childhood cancer patient in the 1970s, reading gave me comfort, gave me hope, and sometimes the answers I was seeking to improve myself and the world around me. I needed the ability to read early on in my life to navigate as a child in a world where I couldn’t control my body, my environment, or the length of my life.” Tea appreciates the impact her service has as well as what she also learns from her students, fellow tutors, and faculty at the school.

Prior to moving to Virginia five years ago, she lived in Wisconsin, Colorado, California, Nevada, and Hawaii but she says that Virginia seems like home. “It’s beautiful here, I love the history around us,” says Tea. When she’s not tutoring, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, crocheting, cooking, singing, dancing and being wacky! “I love to make everyone smile and have a good day,” she says. “I always have stickers of some kind in my pockets for kids in the hall in the morning. Who doesn’t need their good morning hype sticker. I know I do!”