Time transcripts of Becky1

[00:00:00.04]	Interviewer: OK, if you could please give your name and

[00:00:02.06]	just a little brief introduction or bio about yourself.

[00:00:05.80]	Becky: Hi, my name is Becky Beaulieu.

[00:00:07.17]	I am the Vice President of Philanthropy for Pi Beta Phi Sorority.

[00:00:11.10]	Interviewer: Ok, and what do you think of when

[00:00:13.17]	you hear the word literacy?

[00:00:15.34]	Becky: When I think of the word literacy

[00:00:17.35]	I immediately think of our organization's philanthropy 

[00:00:19.37]	which is literacy, and obviously books comes

[00:00:24.43]	to mind, but I tend to think of children learning

[00:00:28.49]	how to read and school programs.

[00:00:31.58]	Interviewer: OK, and do you have any recollections of the

[00:00:34.09]	first time that you ever learned to read?

[00:00:36.60]	Becky: Pretty sure I used to read the Bible 

[00:00:40.32]	with my dad when I was little. My favorite story was

[00:00:44.68]	the story of Rebecca at the well because that was my name,

[00:00:47.65]	but we used to read a little bit every night before I went to bed 

[00:00:50.74]	and that was how I learned how to read. And then up until I was probably 

[00:00:55.10]	about 12 years old we would read a little bit of a book and it just

[00:00:58.86]	increased in level of difficulty once I got older.

[00:01:02.04]	Interviewer: OK, and does your organization do anything

[00:01:04.99]	similar to help others learn to read the same way that 

[00:01:07.00]	you learned to read?

[00:01:09.02]	Becky: Pi Beta Phi actually has program called 

[00:01:11.00]	CAR, which stands for Champions Are Readers,

[00:01:13.06]	which is a program where girls go to different third grade classrooms

[00:01:17.11]	and do an eight week program where each student gets

[00:01:21.17]	a placemat with a race track on it, and they get a car.

[00:01:25.25]	For every 15 minutes of reading that they do at home, they get to move their car

[00:01:29.27]	forward on the placemat, and then over the eight weeks they're supposed to 

[00:01:32.80]	finish a book, reading at home with their parents to increase

[00:01:37.34]	family participation in the reading and learning process, 

[00:01:39.97]	and then at the very end we invite all the parents 

[00:01:43.72]	to a classroom-wide graduation for the kids and they get to have

[00:01:49.53]	cookies and drinks and they get a certificate. And so it's really just meant

[00:01:53.01]	to increase parent involvement in the learning process and to encourage 

[00:01:57.44]	the kids that reading can be fun and it's something that should be valued.

[00:02:01.68]	Interviewer: OK, and do you think that it's 

[00:02:03.70]	common knowledge to people about the issue of people not 

[00:02:07.75]	being able to read, like your sorority works to help people to read,

[00:02:10.77]	not only little kids, but do you think everyone is aware 

[00:02:13.12]	of literacy being an issue today? 

[00:02:15.93]	Becky: I think it's actually one of the 

[00:02:17.94]	really under publicized issues in our society.

[00:02:21.50]	I think when people think of illiteracy they think of third world countries

[00:02:25.05]	and places where they don't have schools, but actually I think

[00:02:29.82]	it's almost 40% of American adults can't read past an 8th grade reading level,

[00:02:33.87]	which is really a problem because when you think of all the higher education level jobs

[00:02:41.02]	that people could have if they knew how to read better.

[00:02:43.45]	That's a huge issue. It's really closely associated with poverty 

[00:02:49.00]	and under-funded schools have a harder time teaching children how to read,

[00:02:52.52]	and their parents aren't as involved in the learning process, 

[00:02:55.31]	so that way it kind of creates a cycle

[00:02:58.31]	where the kids can't read as well, then they tend to drop out of high school earlier.

[00:03:02.35]	It increases risk of teen pregnancy, gang involvement.

[00:03:06.39]	I think it's almost 80 percent of people in prisons are illiterate.

[00:03:12.47]	So it's definitely 

[00:03:14.50]	something that people who can read are unaware of, I feel like,

[00:03:18.58]	but it's something that definitely effects our entire society

[00:03:23.20]	and I think it's almost a billion dollars gets spent every year

[00:03:29.09]	on programs for increasing literacy,

[00:03:34.73]	and resolving conflicts caused by illiteracy. So it actually effects our economy a lot too.

[00:03:41.20]	Interviewer: OK, and then do you have any 

[00:03:42.40]	personal experiences through your program that you could share, like you teaching someone

[00:03:47.49]	to read or any service projects you did with books that you could talk about?

[00:03:50.94]	Becky: We actually are doing something really exciting

[00:03:52.99]	in a month that I've been working on with some members of Sigma Pi Epsilon 

[00:03:58.99]	fraternity, and we're going to have a literacy carnival at the Ohio Union

[00:04:02.99]	and we're going to ask people to come and donate books as their admission.

[00:04:07.03]	And everything that we do is going to be based on reading

[00:04:11.77]	like different stations where the kids can either do 

[00:04:15.13]	a word search or write their own MadLibs poem to Doctor Suess themes,

[00:04:23.27]	a corn hole toss where they have to say

[00:04:27.80]	a word that starts with the letter on the hole that they threw it into.

[00:04:31.33]	So, really kind of like making reading fun and also

[00:04:35.38]	just increasing community awareness of the issues of literacy. 

[00:04:37.90]	And also that all the books that we raise we're going to donate to Nationwide Children Hospital

[00:04:43.48]	Reach Out and Read Program. It's going to be really fun.

[00:04:46.48]	Interviewer: Alright, anything else you want to talk about

[00:04:48.52]	at all or is that good?

[00:04:49.59]	Becky: That's about it, but

[00:04:51.59]	I think literacy is very important.

[00:04:54.89]	Interviewer: Alright, thank you very much.

[00:04:56.90]	Becky: You're welcome