I began teaching English when I graduated. I noticed many of my students were struggling with learning how to read. I then began developing a literacy targeting pedagogy that I called Coloread—a way of utilizing colors as diacritics to help deal with the non-phonemic nature of the language. Low literacy is the greatest problem in American education today and we hope to provide a viable solution. Today Coloread (www.coloread.com) is an edtech startup that’s turning Coloread into a web based platform.

I would like to say that I will forever be indebted to Baruch College, the English department, and the Sidney Harman Creative Writing Program for providing me with the finest education I could have hoped for. They have helped shape who I am as a professional but more importantly, as a human being. In fact, a few months ago, on the 15th anniversary of his death, I wrote an article about Agha Shahid Ali, the first Sidney Harman writer I had studied under.

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