Literacy events hit home for Orange County residents

Even in a community that is home to one of the best universities in the country, Orange County still struggles with illiteracy.

“In Orange County, 50 percent of people at least have a bachelor’s degree, 30 percent have an advanced degree, and yet 15 percent of people still have trouble reading at a high school level,” said Keyur Patel, co-chairman of Project Literacy.

UNC Project Literacy kicked off its second annual One Week of Literacy Monday evening with a lecture on a specific type of literacy — financial literacy.

Postdoctoral research associate Joe Polich, who was a fellow at the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, which the UNC-system Board of Governors voted to close in February, said college students don’t know enough about finances.

“I’m not criticizing college students,” he said. “I borrowed a lot of money to go to school and I didn’t understand it all until after graduation.”

The students involved with Project Literacy want to create a conversation about literacy. The financial literacy event was the first of five events that will take place throughout the week.

“When you say the word literacy, financial literacy isn’t something that necessarily comes to mind,” Patel said. “Literacy isn’t just reading and writing. It’s how one is able to interpret life.”

Polich said in order to increase financial literacy, people should start learning about budgeting before college.

“It’s important to be educated and express economic interest in an economic debate,” he said. “I think the people who understand the economy and its complexities are the people who do well in the economy.”

Other events during the week include a literacy panel to discuss the current status of literacy in Orange County, a Harry Potter trivia night, and literacy on the lawn where students can read selections of their favorite books.

“I think literacy is something that people assume everyone has,” said MaryKate Frisch, a member of the Special Projects committee that helped organize the events. “One Week of Literacy is a good way to get people to recognize that not everyone has literacy.”

Project Literacy works with both adults and children in Orange County who struggle with literacy issues.

Patel hopes that the literacy panel on Tuesday night will address questions about literacy in Orange County.

“I think (the panelists) will shed some light into what’s going on within the community now, what was going on when they were students and how that’s transformed into today’s society,” he said. “I think this event is going to be the one that’ll paint the picture of what kinds of issues of literacy we have to address.”

In the midst of Project Literacy’s 25th anniversary, Frisch hopes this week will better inform students the community about literacy.

“A lot of kids are slipping through the cracks in schools,” Frisch said. “People thought that everyone would be literate by 2014, and that has not happened.”

university@dailytarheel.com