East Islip teen on a mission to promote literacy for all

An East Islip teen is striving to lift literacy rates close to home and across as many borders as she can.

Sude Kilic, 19 and a freshman at Suffolk County Community College, was recently selected as a 2025 Youth Ambassador for the World Literacy Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping children acquire literacy skills “to reach their full potential,” according to its website.

As an ambassador, Kilic has been tasked with raising community awareness about the importance of reading and writing to increase literacy skills — particularly among disadvantaged children. Research shows about 72% of children nationwide in low-income households face reading difficulties, according to the foundation.

“Literacy is important, because everyone has the right to read and write no matter where they are from or how they were raised.” said Kilic, who will spend 30 hours promoting literacy over a three-month span through her ambassadorship.

Those selected as ambassadors are provided training in advocacy, fundraising and leadership through an online program and then create a report outlining their plan to improve literacy in their communities, according to the foundation. Kilic plans to organize book drives and partner with local libraries and schools for reading sessions as well as create social media posts, infographics and videos that “highlight literacy as a human right,” she said.

Kilic is no stranger to championing reading, as she has previously tutored children in her mother’s former village in Turkey, which she visits annually with her family. During those trips, Kilic said she gathered the village’s children around a table and used pencils and scraps of paper to teach them to read and write in English.

It was fun for me and interesting for them because they only spoke Turkish,” she said. “The education there isn’t like American education, so it was just nice to teach them English because they wouldn’t have been able to get that anywhere else.”

Kilic’s other volunteer efforts include restocking supplies and delivering food to emergency room patients last summer at Long Island Community Hospital in Patchogue. She also has worked a string of part-time jobs — ranging from an ice cream shop to a trampoline park, she said.

Lorena Torres, the foundation’s youth ambassador program coordinator, commended Kilic.

“Sude’s passion for education and commitment to helping others reflect exactly what this program is about — empowering young leaders to champion literacy in their communities and beyond,” Torres said. “We believe that literacy is the foundation for opportunity, and ambassadors like Sude are driving real change by ensuring every child has the chance to read, learn and thrive.”

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.