D.I.V.A.S. Program Focuses on Reading Comprehension for Black Girls
COLUMBIA, S.C.
At first glance, Tinesha Croom and Kertisha Dixon appear to be your average college students. But Croom, 18, and Dixon, 19, who have been friends since middle school, wanted to do something more than just go to the beach this summer.
So they created and are leading a program called D.I.V.A.S. — Dynamic, Innovative, Visionary, African-American Sisters — to mentor Black girls from Richland School District 1.
The program focuses on developing reading comprehension skills for girls ages 6-12.
“We wanted to give back to the community, so we wondered how hard it would be to start a program,” Croom says.
Croom, who is a rising sophomore at Winthrop University in Rock Hill; and Dixon, who is a rising sophomore at Howard University in Washington, D.C., conceived the program during one of their frequent phone calls to each other during college.
They worked from October until May to set up the program and decided to focus on lower-income areas and make the program free. They went to different businesses asking for donations without much luck.
