Yearly, the American Affiliation of Group Schools (AACC) honors group school alumni who’ve gone on to do wonderful issues. This 12 months, the affiliation will acknowledge three people who find themselves devoted to serving their communities – and their nation.
AACC will have a good time the 2023 Excellent Alumni and their schools on the 2023 AACC Annual in Denver on April 4.
From Wisconsin to Kenya
As a teen, William Campbell’s future was in jeopardy. He’d gotten expelled from three excessive colleges, had been concerned in fights, and was charged with housebreaking and armed theft.
However with assist from his mother and father, stints in youth detention packages, and steerage from caring instructors, Campbell earned a highschool diploma and obtained a job creating web sites.
He additionally enrolled at Milwaukee Space Technical School (MATC) in Wisconsin the place he grew to become an achieved pupil and chief. Campbell served as president of the Black Pupil Union, labored in native elections and have become the face of MATC in a branding marketing campaign.
He earned an affiliate diploma from MATC in 2005, then two bachelor’s levels from Fisk College and a grasp’s diploma in worldwide relations from Marquette College.
After graduating from Fisk, Campbell was accepted into the Thomas Pickering Overseas Affairs Scholarship program and has served within the U.S. Division of State Overseas Service for the previous 13 years.
He was a full-time detailee to the White Home Nationwide Safety Council Workers in the course of the Obama administration and spent seven years in China as a digital financial advisor. He presently works on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
In February 2022, Campbell was welcomed again to MATC – by way of Zoom – for an alumni highlight session. He talked about his time on the school.
“At MATC I discovered the lesson of self-advocacy. When you don’t go to bat for your self, you received’t get to the place you need to be or the place it is advisable to be,” he advised college students.
Married and a father, Campbell is a job mannequin to many. He works with Rescue, Launch and Restore, a Chicago-based tenting expertise for Black youth.
“It’s crucial that I pay ahead what has been poured into me at MATC, at Fisk, within the metropolis of Milwaukee,” he says. “If I didn’t do this, I’d be letting the universe down.”
Affecting change within the public sector
There was a time when Meghan Maury believed greater schooling was out of attain. At 14, Maury’s mom died. That trauma led to substance use, together with heroin habit and a lifetime of extreme instability, residing in shelters, in a automobile and on the streets.
When Maury was 18, an arrest resulted in a time period of probation and a requirement to undergo drug screens, which Maury says might have helped usher of their sobriety.
Ultimately, that sobriety led to sufficient stability to contemplate school. Maury was residing in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and had met Holyoke Group School college students and graduates.
“I noticed perhaps I may do it,” Maury mentioned. “It was reasonably priced and proper down the road – I had a felony document, and so they didn’t care.”
Maury began out as an accounting main. However an HCC Studying Group (HCC) course modified their route.
The course examined the historical past of the LGBTQ motion, social justice, and the way social change actions work. That coursework was an awakening for Maury and led them to pursue social justice activism.
Maury went on to legislation faculty and landed a job as coverage director for the Nationwide LGBTQ Process Pressure. There, they led a marketing campaign to “queer the census,” initiated as a result of the dearth of information concerning the LGBTQ group was a major problem.
Maury’s work captured the eye of the Biden transition staff, which earned them a seat on the desk because the administration consulted with advocates for varied constituencies.
Now, as senior advisor to the Census Bureau, Maury is a liaison to nonprofits, members of Congress and different stakeholders, offering schooling concerning the work of the bureau to make what’s complicated and technical accessible to everybody.
Maury analyzes information in an effort to enhance the lives of people that belong to marginalized teams.
“It feels wonderful to be serving this group on this place the place I could make actual change,” Maury says.
Preventing for justice
Lanessa Owens-Chaplin is doing precisely what she’s meant to be doing in life.
As a pupil at Onondaga Group School (OCC), Owens-Chaplin was working full time and residing on her personal within the Pioneer Houses Public Housing, positioned instantly subsequent to the elevated portion of Interstate 81. Through the unique construct of Pioneer Houses, greater than 500 houses and companies had been demolished, destroying a Black group.
In the present day, Owens-Chaplin is an lawyer and the lead counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, working to verify the elevated portion of Interstate 81 is changed with an equitable resolution that elevates the voices of the residents who reside within the shadows of I-81.
Her want to pursue a authorized profession began with a enterprise legislation class at OCC.
She graduated in 2003 and enrolled at SUNY School at Outdated Westbury, then earned a legislation diploma on the College of St. Thomas in Miami. After legislation faculty, she returned to Syracuse.
In her authorized profession, she’s served as Authorized Counsel to New York State Assemblymember Sam Roberts after which as deputy secretary for the speaker of the meeting. She additionally based the William Herbert Johnson Bar Affiliation of Central New York, the one minority bar affiliation within the area.
Her focus has been on felony justice reform and anti-poverty initiatives.
And the Interstate 81 venture has been the principle focus of her present skilled life as lead counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union. Due to her efforts, New York State has dominated that the elevated portion of I-81 will probably be coming down.
Her work led Sen. Kristen Gillibrand to suggest Owens-Chaplin for the Advisory Committee on Transportation Fairness inside the U.S. Division of Transportation.
Owens-Chaplin nonetheless visits OCC and speaks with college students. In 2021, the school named her an “Alumni Face” honoree.
She mentioned the honour is “a reminder to college students who stroll the very halls I did that their alternatives are limitless.”
