Work+ Has First Graduate

Program is Model for Statewide Implementation

BY ROD NIMTZ

Anna Kiep of Hamilton became the first Miami Regionals graduate from the new Work+ program in December, continuing along a path of hard work and determination that is leading her to achieve her educational and career goals.

While attending Badin High School, Kiep took advantage of Ohio’s College Credit Plus program. By the time she graduated in 2018, she had earned two years’ worth of Miami credits. She began at Miami Hamilton in the fall of 2018, initially intent on an education degree.

Financing her own education, she was working 60 hours a week between a nanny position and working in retail while taking 18 credit hours.

Learning of the Work+ program, she was attracted to the stability it offered as she worked to complete her degree, which had now switched to English Studies. Work+ enabled her to focus more on her studies by combining payment of her tuition with a paycheck earned working a flexible 24-hour-per-week work schedule with The Fischer Group.

At The Fischer Group, her work has evolved and today she serves as an “issue supervisor,” handling ordering, packaging, shipping, and other issues for the two companies that The Fischer Group serves at its fulfillment center location in West Chester. In addition to her work with the client companies, she has worked with The Fischer Group to develop standardized operating procedures and to train employees.

Kiep training how to package and ship orders at The Fischer Group.

Kiep joined Miami’s Vice President for ASPIRE, Randi Thomas, and Associate Provost and Regional Campus Dean Cathy Bishop-Clark for a statewide Regional Campus Day, speaking with senators in Columbus about Work+ and how it has helped her reach her educational goals.

Ohio Statehouse visit sharing her experience with the Work+ program.

Those conversations were part of what led to a law recently signed by Governor Mike DeWine requiring the Ohio Department of Higher Education to create a template for implementing Work+ programs statewide. The experiences of Kiep and her student colleagues are an integral part of this project.

Kiep plans to head to Cleveland State University in the spring to begin working on her master’s degree in school counseling.

Growing up in Lindenwald and Hamilton, Kiep is a first-generation college student, with many members of her family working in education. Her father is a member of the Hamilton police force and her mother is a teaching assistant for special needs students in the Hamilton schools.

“Anna’s experience with Work+ is precisely what Miami, working with Senator Bill Coley and area companies, envisioned. She gained work experience, earned a regular income from a scheduled position that worked around her class schedule, and is graduating debt free,” Thomas said. “It’s great to have our first program graduate, and equally great to see that she is continuing on to a higher degree to reach and serve students in our schools.”

Kiep admits it is hard to put her overall experience with Work+ into words. “I feel very privileged and blessed to have had this opportunity,” she said. “Work+, combined with the affordability of Miami Regionals, is a combination that all students should explore.”