Meet Amy: Connect2Complete & CCAMPIS Spotlight!

 Meet Amy Michael!!

Amy is a junior Special Education major with a minor in disability studies. Amy joined our team in Spring 2014, after she heard about the program at Fall Fest in 2013. Amy and her husband have four children, the youngest attends Campus Kids on Miami Hamilton's campus.

Fun Fact: All of Amy's children have names that are 6 letters long and begin with the letter H!

Amy's career goals are to make a positive change in education. Her favorite thing about being an Advocate is meeting diverse groups of students, learning their strengths and challenges, and helping them to problem solve and connect to what they need to succeed!

Amy loves sushi and payday candy bars. Her favorite color is orange and her favorite pie is apple. When Amy was asked "Who is your hero and why?" she responded with: "My kids! They have overcome so much and have no idea the battles they have fought." 

E-cards always make her laugh and her favorite joke is: "Why are lattes called lattes? Because they cost a-lot-tae".

If Amy could change one thing in the world, she would eliminate stereotypes. Her advice to incoming students is: "Be empathetic. Try to understand why people are different and face the challenges they do. Be respect, don't judge, help!".

Connect2Complete!

In Spring 2014, Amy served in Karen Blount's ABLE Writing class. Her class volunteered at the Animal Adoption Foundation participating in their "Walk a Hound" program and socializing with cats. Amy wrote a great blog about her experience titled "Animal Adoption Foundation Experience"!


We were ecstatic when Amy was able to continue her work with us in Fall 2014 in Becky Richard's ENG007, Fundamentals of Writing course.  On Wednesday September 10, 2014 Amy and her class volunteered at Shared Harvest Food Bank for their Civic Engagement project.

Shared Harvest was preparing for Panerathon, one of their largest fundraisers throughout the year. A substantial portion of the proceeds benefit the backpack program which provides weekend meals for kids. The Miami Hamilton Connect2Complete volunteers helped to pack "swag bags" for those participating in the Panerathon. The backs were stuffed full of goodies and important community information.  The students learned that volunteering at a food bank doesn't always mean working with food. They learned the power of volunteers bu stuffing 350 bags in just under an hour. Three classes visited that day, stuffing a total of 1050 "swag bags" for the Panerathon.
Click here to view more pictures on our flickr! 

CCAMPIS!

During the last semester, Amy has been serving as our CCAMPIS Peer Advocate in Campus Kids, Miami University Hamilton's on campus childcare center. CCAMPIS stands for "Childcare access means parents in school". CCAMPIS is a federal program that "supports the participation of low-income parents in postsecondary education through the provision of campus-based child care services."  

Amy & her family

This is our first semester partnering with Campus Kids, Traci Anders (Director of Campus Kids), and the CCAMPIS grant to provide student parents with continued support throughout the semester. Amy has done an amazing job forging the program and connecting with student parents on and off campus. During the school week, Amy works in the Child Care center meeting with parents or finding resources to support their education and success. During Spring Break Amy organized a play date picnic at a near by playground!   

We're excited that Amy will be working with us again next semester on the CCAMPIS program! She's an amazing mother, student and Advocate! We cannot wait to see how the CCAMPIS-Advocate program grows with her on board!