Cam Imburgio can tell you about Grim and Punishment and Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea. He knows For Whom the Ball Roles.
Cam devoured the Dog Man series, which addressed those topics in detail, reading each of the 13 books in the series cover-to-cover.
Now, he’s moved on to the adventures of George Beard and Harold Hutchins and their principal, Mr. Krupp, following their zany antics through the 12-book series Captain Underpants.
Cam, 7, a second grader at Wekiva Elementary School in Longwood, is reading better than ever, and for that, his mom, Erika, is thrilled.
“I know that kind of halfway through the (school) year, his reading scores weren’t as great, and they improved at the end of the year, and I think even over the summer, he’s improving even more with extra practice and repetition,” Erika said.
The improvement began during the 2023-23 school year when Cam received the New Worlds Scholarship, managed by Step Up For Students.
The scholarship provides parents of VPK and K-5 public school students with an Education Savings Account (ESA) that allows them to purchase materials and programs aimed at improving math and reading scores.
In Cam’s case, it was reading.
The first use of the ESA was to purchase an iPad that’s used solely for learning. On it are apps like Duolingo and Kahn Academy that help Cam learn reading concepts – letter sounds and phonics.
“It’s his own device that he’s able to use, and it’s super helpful,” Erika said. “He gets a lot of reading practice with those educational apps.”
Erika used the ESA for supplemental learning materials to help combat the summer slide.
“I want to keep him sharp over the summer with extra practice for reading and his sight words and all of that stuff going into second grade,”
Erika said. “I want to keep him fresh for that.”
Through the ESA, Erika was able to find a reading tutor this summer.
“We were really able to make the most of it that way,” Erika said. “Next year, I want to continue with the tutor, have that extra supplemental learning that he’s able to get with the scholarship because it’s helped him out tremendously.”
Cam has dealt with hearing issues since an early age. He’s had three surgeries on his ear, and Erika said that has left him with some hearing loss which affected his speech. It was a domino effect, she said, that had a negative impact on his ability to read.
“He was behind from the jump,” she said. “In kindergarten, he struggled a little bit. In first grade, when it ramped up a bit more, he struggled a lot. And because of the increased struggles that he was having, especially with letter sounds, we wanted to really ramp up his reading, writing, reading comprehension.”
The New Worlds Scholarship has been a boon.
“That’s kind of what got us here,” Erika said. “We’re super appreciative for the scholarship and super thankful that it exists. We’re really happy that we were able to put it to good use for our son.”
Erika recently noticed a jump in Cam’s reading comprehension. He’s able to read and understand directions to games.
“The scholarship has definitely worked as well as I had hoped, and hopefully, he continues to improve with it,” she said.
“It’s definitely sparked more of an interest and curiosity in reading, and it doesn’t feel like so much of a chore to practice reading. So, it’s been helpful with that. And he really enjoys getting books in the mail now and going to the library and picking out new books. He looks forward to that. He thinks it’s cool and fun, and he really didn’t have those feelings before.”
