Imagine the biggest interview of your life — a make it or break it moment — and you don’t have a way to get there. That’s what faced Brittany Morris, a leader in several programs at the Metro Youth YMCA (MY-Y) and a senior at the Detroit International Academy for Young Women in Detroit.
Brittany was always determined to go to college, but wasn’t sure exactly how to pay for it or what school might be the best option. She got great guidance from several people at the Y, but Terry Mial, director of outreach at the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, really took Brittany under her wing. “She had smarts going for her, so I started working with her and put her in our leadership program,” she says.
Terri’s daughter attends Bowling Green State University in Ohio, so when Brittany started thinking about where to apply Terri encouraged her to go there because of their excellent scholarship programs and their mentoring for students from less affluent backgrounds.
Brittany was selected for an interview for their President’s Scholarship, but had no way to make the four-hour drive to campus. Terri asked her daughter, Tara, to come home for the weekend and take Brittany back with her in time for the interview.
That was in February 2011….and February in Michigan means unpredictable weather. Sure enough, on the night before her interview it started to snow, and did not let up. Brittany despaired of missing her interview and her chance at the scholarship, but Terri swung into action. “I called the school and told them everything,” she says. “I pleaded with them to let her interview by phone.” They agreed, and Brittany nailed the interview and got the scholarship. She’s now in her freshman year at Bowling Green.
When Tara Mial, Terri’s daughter finally did make her way back to school after that snowstorm, she got in an accident on the way back that totaled her car. She was unhurt, but the highway patrolman told her if someone had been sitting in the passenger seat — where Brittany would have been sitting had she gone with Tera — they would have been killed.
In yet another coincidence, because of the transportation problem the two young women never actually met. Last semester, Brittany wanted some writing help with an assignment so she signed up for a tutor at the campus writing center. She saw a Tara Mial on the list of instructors, and hoping it was Terri’s daughter, chose her as her tutor.
It was indeed, and Tara, a senior, has become a mentor for Brittany, showing her around the campus and introducing her to organizations she might want to join.
Brittany sums up her relationship with her Y mentors this way: “I was like their little daughter.” Terri still checks up on her every few weeks and sends her encouraging texts. Before leaving for school, she had the opportunity to speak to Y donors who had funded a scholarship she received. She promised she would not let them down — and she’s already made them proud.