Please Note: The Antelope Valley College Book Club, previously known as Read to Succeed (RtS), has rebranded to AVCReads.

Go to AVCReads for more information on our upcoming discussions.

The History of Read to Succeed

The quote by Joseph Addison that "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body," drove Dr. Morenike Adebayo-Ige into being a part of the Norco College Reading Club, tagged Read2Succeed!

About a year after she got hired at AVC, Morenike met with Dr. Jill Zimmerman (Dr. Z.) over dinner in the fall of 2016 to share her vision of a book club—an idea she had seen from Norco College. Dr. Z. welcomed the idea and suggested she puts it into writing, while sharing the concept with other campus stakeholders. A year after that, precisely on August 29, 2017, with support from Dean Riley Dwyer and the college leadership, Morenike invited a group of faculty, staff, and admin to a meeting at the Learning Center (LC). She presented the importance of reading to life and college success. That presentation birthed "The Read to Succeed (RtS)" initiative on campus with a mission to create a community of engaged readers on campus and beyond and a vision to connect the AVC community through the act of reading.

Thus, RtS is a campus-wide reading club that connects AVC students, faculty, staff, admin, and the community that we serve. Student Equity (SE) has served as an RtS sponsor from inception to date, while the committee of faculty governing RtS continues to evolve.

RtS discussion is an FPD (Faculty Professional Development) event, and some faculty members also give extra credit to students for engaging with RtS. Several students have taken active roles, including joining the planning committee, helping lead discussions, and participating in the final events with their original material. All the books read to date can be found at the library "RtS Glass Show Case," while our page on the college website RtS Home Page has an archived section of past presentations and books.

To further impact our community, faculty volunteers introduced the RtS program to our Rising Scholars students at the Lancaster California State Prison in 2018. Overall, Read to Succeed continues to grow and support student success and engagement on campus with support from the college leadership, faculty, students, and staff.

Previous Events

Judith Heumann’s Being Heumann

Spring 2024: Read to Succeed will continue to focus on the late Judith Heumann’s Being Heumann, a story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn’t built for all of us and of one woman’s activism. The story recounts Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society.

Please RSVP to receive a free copy of the book. Discussions are 1 hour held via Zoom and are open to AVC Campus and the Community.

For more information and to request a Zoom Invite, please email Osvaldo Larios-Perez or Dr. Morenike Adebayo-Ige.

Students should check with their professors for extra credit.

Faculty earns Std 1 FPD.

2022/23 Final Event: Author's Visit in Pictures

If you are interested in getting a free copy of our current book, please email:

RtS at rts@avc.edu

RtS Committee Contacts:

Lead: Osvaldo (Ozzy) Larios-Perez: olariosperez@avc.edu

Advisor: Dr. Morenike Adebayo-Ige: madebayoige@avc.edu