Growing up, rising Woodgrove High School senior Izabella Piatkowski sat on the floor in her parents’ room and read books such as The Giving Tree aloud. Still learning to read, she would periodically point to a word and ask her parents to say it.
One memorable experience was asking about the word “whispered,” she recalled.
Then, as she got older, the Loudoun County teenager considered books and stories her “home away from home.” They connected her to the world, and taught her different things that she hadn’t known about before.
Some of Piatkowski’s best memories involve talking about books or writing stories with her friends and family. That prompted her to express interest in becoming a youth ambassador for the World Literacy Foundation, an international organization that aims to improve literacy among disadvantaged students.
Now, she’ll work toward executing that mission while also spreading awareness about the importance of reading and writing in her Purcellville, Virginia, community.
“I want to spread the message that literacy is a privilege and we should be grateful that we are able to read and write, and we should make sure that everyone has this ability,” Piatkowski said.
Piatkowski said she’s participating in trainings and other programs that are tied to fundraising, advocacy and leadership. She’s one of several people from 40 countries working to improve literacy outcomes for disadvantaged kids who struggle to read, the organization said in a news release.
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The group has set a combined $40,000 fundraising goal for the ambassadors, she said.
“Since the pandemic, it has been significantly harder for people to access resources that allow them to gain the skills to read and write,” Piatkowski said. “Some people overlook this issue because they don’t think of it as a problem that affects them. But it’s still a very important problem that the world has to work toward — improving literacy rates.”
Piatkowski is a staff writer with her school newspaper and has an editing role with the literary magazine.
As part of her efforts, she’s hoping to make sure students don’t take the ability to read and write for granted.
“Students complain about it, we don’t want to do this homework,” Piatkowski said. “But really, it’s a privilege to be able to read and write.”
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