Monrovia Volunteer Dedicated to Literacy

Artist, tutor, and fitness buff Joan Sinsheimer has traveled the world, but nowadays, she spends much of her free time at the library teaching people how to read.

She has dedicated many hours over the years to tutoring adults enrolled in program and children in the Monrovia school district. Sinsheimer first began volunteering at because of a friend she met at her gym, .

“One of the reading specialists asked me if I wanted to be a volunteer,” said Sinsheimer. “I just wanted to contribute to the community.”

At first, Sinsheimer volunteered with Monroe Elementary’s Language Arts program, where she helped students focus on reading texts, improving their reading comprehension, and increasing their vocabulary.

Sinsheimer began working with Literacy Services when the old Monrovia Public Library building was still standing. She appreciates the new library, which she said is larger and has more access to technology. She has tutored numerous adults through Literacy Service’s program over the years. 

“I like the flexibility of it. I can meet whenever it’s convenient with my student,” she said. “My student reads to me a lot. I pick words that are unfamiliar to her and she writes sentences from the new words.”

Currently, Sinsheimer works with a cosmetology student who emigrated from Mexico.

“She wants to be able to go into business here so she needs to improve her English,” Sinsheimer said.

The literacy program provides workbooks, but Sinsheimer said that they often read other types of material.

“We just started reading Twilight. She likes it,” Sinsheimer said.

Sinsheimer was also marriage and family therapist for 25 years, and holds a masters degree in counseling from Cal State Los Angeles. In addition to tutoring, she also volunteered at Planned Parenthood and the Pasadena Mental Health Center. She has three children, five grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.

Promotes Education

“Education has always been important,” she said.  “I always read to my kids and they’re all good readers and love to read,” she said.

Sinsheimer also said that one of her daughters, Lois Wickstrom, is an author and a playwright. “She’s been writing since high school,” she said. 

These days she enjoys books by Thomas Friedman and shows like Roadtrip Nation on PBS. She’s also a long-term member of a book club. Most recently they read Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, she said.

Sinsheimer has always had a creative, artistic bent. She recalled taking art and jewelry-making classes when she was younger, and said that she first began taking welding classes many years ago at Pasadena City College, when it was not as common for women to study that subject.

“The professor allowed women into his classes,” she remembered.

Some of her art pieces furnish her home. She made her own lamp from welding rods, and the coffee table in her living room was created out of pipes and scrap metal she collected from a junkyard. She has also worked with copper and enamel and ceramics, and is inspired by the form of natural objects, such as shark egg cases and driftwood she has collected from the beach.

In addition to photographs of family, art, and figurines, textiles from around the world are on display in her home. As a therapist she attended conferences in many places and has been to Japan, China, Australia, Africa, Costa Rica, the Yucatan, and many countries in Europe. 

“I loved Australia,” she said, adding that her daughter recently invited her to go on a trip to Australia and New Zealand. She was also a member of the Sierra Club and sought out high peaks for hiking excursions. 

“I’ve hiked 200 mountain peaks above 5,000 feet,” she said.

While Sinsheimer lives a quieter life these days, she said that she enjoyed attending the library’s most recent ice cream social for volunteers. Sinsheimer also said that she appreciates how welcoming the people are at the Monrovia Public Library. 

“I’ve always liked libraries, I’ve always liked schools, and I’ve always liked fitness. Those are things I seek wherever I go,” she said.