MYCP - Monroe Youth Challenge Program

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Coral Shores Alum Amy Griffin Drives Nine Hours to ‘Make a Difference’

TAVERNIER (792 words) -- It’s 5 a.m. Monday, do you know where Tallahassee Community College Freshman Amy Griffin is? She’s driving 60 miles an hour the wrong direction -- or the right direction depending on the point of view. Coral Shores High School graduate Amy Griffin, from the class of 2006, left Tallahassee to help students at Coral Shores and Key West High Schools during Challenge Days last month. “It was important to come back to my community. I’m proud of where I’m from and how close everyone is. I wanted to make a difference,” she said.

Photo Credit: MYCP
“Student facilitators are vital to the Challenge Day experience because it helps the younger students open up and we’re right on campus so we can provide continual support,” said Griffin.

Griffin spent six intense days making a difference in Monroe County’s youth. Tuesday and Wednesday she volunteered at Coral Shores and Thursday she volunteered at Key West High School. After that she paid $100 to attend three days of Next Step, a follow-up program for adults and youth leaders involved with Challenge Day events. It’s harder for adult volunteers to get kids to drop the water line. Griffin trusted getting real. Monroe County Safe School Coordinator Sunny Booker said, “She made all three Challenge Days better for the kids, especially in Key West which cost her an extra two-hour drive, where she hadn’t gone to school and where there were fewer student leaders in the room. Her presence gave the small groups better communication right away. That’s what makes a difference for the kids.”

The ability to get real started her own freshman year in high school when she attended her first Challenge Day in 2002. She says the reason she went to Challenge Day that year was to skip class. But she may have learned a much greater lesson than she could have in a class room that day. “I learned to look at people differently. I made more friends and felt more accepted. I was really moved,” she said. So she kept coming to Challenge Days. In her senior year, Griffin enrolled in Leadership Class where she trained to become a peer facilitator. “Student facilitators are vital to the Challenge Day experience because it helps the younger students open up and we’re right on campus so we can provide continual support,” said Griffin.

Because she has stayed in contact with Sutter and other leadership students, she knew Challenge Day week was coming and wanted to be a part of it. Although her studies are focused on theater and dance, Griffin knows her career choices will include ways to help people.

“We are proud of our MYCP graduates like Amy. She had four years of Challenge Days, was a Leadership class student, and had a Next Step under her belt by the time she headed off to college. Then she comes back and volunteers her time for three more Challenge Days and another Next Step.” Sutter added, “That shows her commitment and is a fine example of applying what she learned.”

“It’s strange being in my apartment at school because none of my [new] friends have even heard of Challenge Day so I’m constantly setting the example. I have ‘Be the Change’ written on my mirror to remind myself,” said Griffin.

One of her wishes to “Be the Change” is to encourage more educators to attend Next Step. She said, “It’s much deeper than Challenge Day and it’s really good for educators to go to.” According to Next Step research, education today teaches from the body to the mind to the heart to the spirit. “Next Step reverses the whole idea. If teachers taught from the spirit – like we practice looking people in the eyes – students would know teachers really care.”

Griffin arrived back in Tallahassee after a return drive of nine hours and six days of genuine sharing to her mirror that reads, “Be the Change.”

Monroe Youth Challenge Program is a project of the Monroe County Education Foundation to foster acceptance, respect, and success in the youth of Monroe County. For more information about this project or any other MYCP-sponsored program call MYCP District Prevention Coordinator Michele Sutter at (305) 852-1664 or go to www.monroe.k12.fl.us/mycp.