Nov. 18,
2008 issue
I didn't know a thing about EMU when my husband
and I moved here from Ohio in 1996. The youngest of our
five children was a senior in high school, and she was
checking out different colleges. While she was at an event
on campus, I wandered over to human resources and saw a
job posting for a position
in the College of Education. My background is in literacy,
so I applied and I got the job.
Twelve and a half years later, working at EMU has become so much a part
of who I am. Even when the jobs changed — from teaching
that first course in assessment and evaluation to helping
run EMU's on-site educational resource center at the Ypsilanti
Ford (then Visteon, then ACH) plant, to my current position
with GEAR UP — the
opportunities have been right there at the right time.
GEAR UP stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate
Programs. It's a six-year federal grant program designed
to make sure kids in low-income districts get resources
and services like mentoring, tutoring, homework assistance
and college visits. We're following the class of 2012 in
three school districts — they're freshmen now — and
the whole purpose is to lift their aspirations so they
envision themselves walking across that stage in four years,
getting a high school diploma and going on to some postsecondary
education.
I work with an absolutely fantastic team. Each of us has our own strengths,
and everyone has such a positive attitude. When you work with teenagers,
you never know what's going to pop up. You just have to go with it. When
something comes up, each of us has the ability to laugh and say, "Flexibility
is my middle name."
What we do is hard work, but it's fun, too. We had a two-week summer
program, for example, and it was exhausting. But, at the
same time, it was so energizing. I feel like this job has
kind of taken me full circle. As the kids in our program
grow and change, I find it certainly helps that I've raised
five teenagers. I'm older than the other site coordinators,
but I have that personal perspective. I do see the light
at the end of the tunnel, and I have great hope and optimism
for the young people I work with. — Contributed by Amy
E. Whitesall
