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Making New Friends: YC Alumni and CSU Students Connect

Graduate students from the Cleveland State University Center for Human Machine Systems (CHMS) connected with Youth Challenge alumni from January through May for their spring semester traineeship. Biomedical engineering students Luci Duncan, Breann Walsh, and Erin Clark attended one alumni fitness session per month and participated in St. Edward High School’s Maker Challenge. The Maker Challenge was an opportunity for St. Edward High School students, Cleveland State University students and industry professionals to work with YC alumni and board members with disabilities to find accessibility solutions. YC alumni Sean Walker, Breanna Sprenger, and Sara Steimle presented on an accessibility panel at CSU.

“I think that overall the experiences not only reassured me this is what I want to do, this is what I want to go into,” Erin said. “This experience also has brought new perspectives, it’s making friendships and it’s fun. Coming to YC makes it enjoyable, it’s not just sitting by myself at a desk all day.”

Working together to find the right accessibility solutions during the Maker Challenge and on boxing combinations during YC fitness programs allowed the CSU students and YC alumni to bond. They exchanged contact information, and the CSU students hope to continue volunteering at YC now that the traineeship is over.

Breanna, a YC alumna participant, is a social work student at Cleveland State University but does not live on campus. She is excited that her new CSU friends will help her to, in her own words, create the college experience.

“It’s really nice to know that I have friends now,” Breanna said. “I can just go and hang out. I really want to be able to explore campus, because I don’t really know my way around.”

Luci moved to the Cleveland area from Kentucky last August and said that YC was the first place she has made Ohio friends.

“[YC] has become a home for me because that’s where a large portion of my friends in the entire state are,” Luci said. “I just really appreciate that, because I need people.”