UTEP's Golden Nugget: Recipient John Corcoran's Speech

September 2025, University Texas El Paso, honored alumni John Corcoran with the prestigious Golden Nugget Award. Below is John's speech he prepared for the ceremony.

"UTEP HELPED SHAPE ME AND CONTINUES TO TODAY.

Thank you UTEP, President Dr. Heather Wilson, Dean Clifton Tanabe, PhD, and fellow alumni for shining a light on America's literacy crisis and helping break the cycle of illiteracy and sub-literacy. I believe literacy is the most important educational, civil rights and human rights issue of this decade. Reading is a foundational skill that opens the door to future learning.

Behind the scenes of an event like this, there is always someone working tirelessly to make it all possible. Thank you, Betzania Vazquez, for helping my family and I feel at home.

More than 65 years ago, my loving parents put me on a train in Phoenix, Arizona, and I arrived in El Paso 12 hours later. It was 6 AM, Sunday morning. It was too early to call for my ride, so I walked out to the street to see what El Paso looked like. I felt alone. I was alone and scared. I had a good reason to be afraid; I had a secret that I needed to keep to myself. That was my game plan. I would play it by ear.

To kill some time, I started walking East and came across a church where Mass had just ended and the people were coming out. I asked a young man if he could tell me where Texas Western College was and he pointed up the hill and asked, "Do you need a ride?"

We picked up my trunks at the train station, shared a few stories on the drive to the campus. He pulled up in front of Miners Hall and said, "This is your new home. Good luck."

For the first six years of my life, my loving parents led me to believe that I was smart and a winner. They sent me off to school with high hopes and the expectation that I would learn how to read. It turned out, I was one of millions of subliterate and illiterate children, teens, and adults who struggled with learning how to read.

In the second grade, I ended up in the DUMB ROW, along with others that had difficulties understanding the written word. I stayed there for the next five years of elementary school.

Today, I would be labeled Learning Disabled. You might say my long and profoundly unexpected life's journey has taken me from the Dumb Row to this podium and this Gold Nugget Award.

Now, I would like to introduce you to a couple of my young sub-personalities. First, there’s Johnny the Innocent: 10 years old, confused, afraid, and constantly reprimanded for “not trying hard enough". And then there’s Johnny the Native Alien: 13 years old, behavioral problems, angry, lost, insecure, navigating the world without the right map. These two wrote a poem together.

After I learned to read, one of the first things I wrote was the Native Alien. I would like to read it to you.

I know the pain and frustration of not knowing how to read and I have felt the joy of knowing how to read. Today, our classrooms are full of too many Native Aliens like me. 70% or more of our prison inmates are illiterate or sub-literate. Only 16% of Black students, 20% of Latino students, and 10% of disabled students are proficient in reading in the fourth grade. Science (and common sense) is teaching us that we can do better.

DON'T BLAME TEACHERS, TRAIN THEM. Properly teaching a person how to read is part art, part heart, and an ever growing part science. Teaching a child how to read is an act of love. I would love to see UTEP lead the way to a more literate world. It is too much to make the invisible-visible in a few words.

On your table, you will find a copy of one of my books: The Reading Gap: Journey To Answers, which was written eight years ago. I hope you will take it home with you, read it, and consider sharing it with others. Be sure to read the Epilogue on page 105.

No matter how bright or clever a person may be, they will not be able to maximize their fullest potential if they are illiterate or sub-literate in today's world. Reading makes your smarter.

Life is a mystery. I learned to read at 48. I AM HERE BY THE GRACE OF GOD. Today my heart is full of gratitude and I deeply appreciate it.

UTEP thank you for this honor.

Redemption is always a welcome blessing.

With love, always a Miner. 1961"

If you haven't yet, please watch John's 2023 documentary "The Truth About Reading" here.

And be sure to donate to the sequel "Healing After The Truth". Together we can teach the world to read!