Young, Gifted and Black: McMicken Alums Take On World-Changing Issues

Andraya Mays isn’t where she thought she’d be when she started taking classes at the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences in 2009. While the Philosophy alumna long wanted to make a difference in the lives of young people, her sights were set beyond her hometown’s city limits.

The 24-year-old Cincinnati native grew up around her step-father’s business, a non-profit that runs group homes for youth in foster care. She said watching her mother and step-father run Kelly Youth Services (KYS) inspired her interest in helping young people in need.  

But when the Walnut Hills High School graduate, who now serves as the Education Director for KYS, first considered college, she enrolled in Tiffin University, a small private school in Tiffin, Ohio. Before long, Mays realized it wasn’t a good fit.

“I wanted more of a real-world experience,” Mays said. “I went to UC for that, and I feel like I got it.”

Early frustrations illuminate opportunities

When Mays transferred to UC, she opted to double-major in Psychology (in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences) and Criminal Justice (in the College of Education, Criminal Justice & Human Services). Crossing disciplines and colleges fueled her learning and her curiosity.

She also worked. A lot. She served as a peer mediator, a Night Ride driver, a Journalism Department student worker. She taught kids in summer day camps and worked as a tutor. She even coached high-school cheerleaders on the side.

“At UC, I learned how to hustle,” she said. She heeded advisers who encouraged her to build relationships and networks with her professors and others whose work interested her. After she reached out to shadow a forensic psychiatrist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, she learned about, and landed, a competitive research fellowship with him. 

The experience not only taught her valuable lessons, it helped reshape her career path after she gained a clear and critical insight.

“By the time a forensic psychologist meets a kid, they’re already in trouble,” Mays said. 

Mays realized that she wanted to keep young people from entering the criminal justice system in the first place. So she reflected on her own childhood and thought about what separated her from the youth she wanted to support and guide. There was her family, of course. But there was also another key factor, she said.

“Having a great education was something that really set me apart,” she said. 

She decided to shift her studies at UC. She started taking Philosophy classes and refocused her career search. 

As graduation loomed, she thought long and hard about her next step. She was leaving McMicken with a high GPA, a strong resume and a passion to help young people succeed. Once again, she found the answer in education.

Broadening horizons with Teach for America 

Mays talked with one of her friends, who had been accepted into the prestigious and highly competitive Teach for America (TFA) program. The 25-year-old non-profit national teacher corps recruits recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public school systems around the country. 

Mays liked that TFA served public school students who lacked adequate resources. But she was skeptical. How could college graduates who had not studied education have a significant impact on their slightly younger peers? 

In the end, Mays—like 57,000 other college graduates from across the country—decided to apply. It was 2013 and Mays had become part of the biggest applicant pool in TFA history. She was one of just 6,000 applicants accepted into the most selective class in TFA history.

As a TFA corps member, Mays taught third grade in a new Cincinnati charter school, where she saw first-hand the challenges teachers and students faced in under-resourced and struggling schools. She spent her first day not writing lesson plans and organizing her classroom, but trying to recruit students to enroll in the school, which was housed in an annex of a church in Avondale.

Still, Mays enjoyed working with her students, especially as she saw them grow academically and personally. One third-grader who couldn’t read a single sentence at the beginning of the school year worked with Mays daily and even took on extra work. Not only was the young student reading at grade level before summer, she was the strongest reader in her fourth-grade class.

“The more you meet kids, you see that kids need that unconditional love from people. They need a village of people,” Mays said. “Some people had that village of people who raised them, and every kid deserves that.”

While still a TFA corps member, Mays taught eighth grade at Orion Academy. Former students from Orion who are now enrolled in De Paul Cristo Rey School, a charter school where 100 percent of high-school seniors are accepted into colleges, honored Mays with a Make A Difference Award this winter. 

‘I’ll always fight for them’

After wrapping up her TFA assignment, Mays looked for a new way to help young people succeed. Turns out she didn’t have to look very far. 

As Education Director for Kelly Youth Services, Mays works closely with schools to support foster kids living in group homes. She monitors their enrollment, advocates for them at their schools, works with their teachers and leads daily study sessions, too. 

It’s rewarding work, but Mays remains far from satisfied.

“I’ve seen what happens to kids in the criminal justice system. I’ve seen what happens to them in our public education system. Now, I’m seeing what happens to them in the foster care system,” Mays said. “As a society, we’re failing so many children in so many ways. They deserve better.” 

Mays also learned along the way that good intentions are not always enough. “I think a lot of people who go into working with kids, especially kids from low-income families, just want to be the savior,” she said. “You cannot save kids. All you can do is give them the tools to save themselves.”

This fall, Mays plans to expand her own toolkit and apply to law school. She wants to learn more about child and family law, juvenile justice and education law in particular so that she can work to address the systems and policies that impact the lives of the youth she works with every day. The ones she knows are all too often ignored. The ones who frustrate and inspire her. The ones who never had a village. 

“I’ll always fight for them,” Mays said.

Know an alum we should highlight? Email Elissa Yancey with ideas.