Since January 1986, when the Illinois Secretary of State Literacy Grant Program began funding a wide variety of adult literacy programs, more than 30,000 students have sought help with reading. They have been matched with 25,000 tutors who have provided more than 2 million hours of volunteer instruction. The profiles in this booklet are stories of 12 students who had the courage to change their lives, with help from tutors who believed they could. The following adults (and their respective literacy programs) are profiled: (1) Bill, a farmer--Frontier Community College Literacy Program, Fairfield; (2) Laurel, a self-employed seamstress--Rockford Area Literacy Council; (3) Guillermo, a factory supervisor--Elgin YWCA; (4) Iris, a homemaker--Youth Services Project, Inc., Chicago; (5) Donnie, a bus driver--Five-County Adult Education Program, Cairo; (6) Minnie, a school cook--John Wood Community College, Quincy; (7) Jim, a service department leader--Morton College, Cicero; (8) Billy, a construction worker--McLean/DeWitt Regional Office of Education, Bloomington; (9) Connie, a part-time employee--Belleville Community College; (10) Dorothy, a factory worker--Waubonsee Community College, Aurora; (11) Christine, a concerned parent--Spoon River College, Canton; and (12) Howard, a maintenance worker--Secretary of State In-house Literacy Program, Springfield. The stories are illustrated with quotations from the adult students and photographs. The address and telephone number of each literacy program are provided. (KC)