Literacy Rooted in Identity, Equity, and Joy
Literate Voices helps students become confident readers, writers, and storytellers by drawing on the experiences, languages, and communities that shape their lives.
Through personal narrative, culturally sustaining teaching, and purposeful literacy instruction, students develop academic skills while discovering the power of their own voices.
Their stories become the foundation for meaningful reading, writing, reflection, and authentic publication.
Dr. Jyothi Bathina with students at San Jose High, 2005
Literacy Development
Students strengthen comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and communication through meaningful engagement with texts and their own narratives.
Our Three Pillars
Identity and Community
Students explore their families, cultures, languages, relationships, and aspirations, recognizing their lived experiences as valuable sources of knowledge.
Reflection and
Student Voice
Students develop confidence and agency as they reflect, revise, share their stories, and create work for authentic audiences.
Our Vision
Every student deserves to see themselves as a reader, writer, and creator—with stories that matter.
Our Story
From San Jose to the South Bronx, from a tribal orphanage in Odisha, India, to Madera, Fresno, and the many small towns along California's Highway 99, our work has been shaped by the stories of young people whose voices deserve to be heard.
Literate Voices grew from Dr. Jyothi Bathina's experiences as a teacher, literacy coach, and educator working with students from diverse cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Across these very different communities, one conviction remained constant: students have stories worth telling, and those stories can become powerful foundations for literacy learning.
Through personal narrative, students explore their identities, families, communities, relationships, and dreams. They learn to see their experiences as sources of knowledge, develop confidence as readers and writers, and transform their stories into work that can be shared with authentic audiences.
What began as a commitment to helping young people find their voices has grown into an approach to literacy education that brings together identity, academic learning, creativity, and the power of storytelling.
Balashram, Odisha, India-2016
South Bronx, New York- 2004
Madera, California-2024
Meet the Founder
Dr. Jyothi Bathina
Founder, Literate Voices
Associate Professor of Education
University of Massachusetts Global
Dr. Jyothi Bathina is an educator, scholar, and literacy advocate whose work has taken her from classrooms in the South Bronx and California's Central Valley to schools and universities in the United States and internationally.
Her career spans classroom teaching, literacy coaching, teacher education, curriculum development, and educational leadership. She previously served as a professor at California State University, Fresno, and as Director of the Center for the Advancement of Reading and Writing at the California State University Chancellor's Office.
Drawing on decades of experience working with culturally and linguistically diverse students, Dr. Bathina founded Literate Voices to bring personal narrative, cultural identity, and authentic student publication into literacy instruction. Her work has supported students in transforming their experiences into written narratives, illustrated stories, and published anthologies.
Her scholarly engagement includes invited presentations at McGill University in Canada, the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, Osmania University in India, and Georgia State University, along with presentations at national and international conferences.
At the heart of her work is a conviction that young people are not simply learning to read and write. They are learning to understand themselves, make meaning of their experiences, and recognize that their voices matter.