Published on Nov. 13, 2018
This October, the Honors College welcomed its newest staff member, Sarah Kammeyer. She joins the Honors College as the new Assistant to the Director and the general office manager, and will have extensive interaction with students, faculty, and staff across campus.
Kammeyer is a Columbia native who graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2016. After graduating college, she moved across the country to pursue one of her passions: volunteering. She joined the AmeriCorps, where she was assigned to help an organization in West Virginia.
“I’ve always been interested in volunteering, and AmeriCorps sends volunteers to local organizations that allow for a lot of hands-on, direct work,” Kammeyer said. “I was really excited to get integrated into a community, to help out and learn more about their daily life and their needs.”
Kammeyer was assigned to High Rocks Educational Corporation, which is a young-peoples empowerment organization. High Rocks hosts summer camps, extracurricular programs, consulting groups and more for young people ages 12-29. Though her main job was to help with High Rock’s Community Garden, she volunteered in every area of their regional programming.
“The main goal of High Rock is to get young people to think more critically, to be aware of the opportunities around them, to just question how things work, and get engaged in producing solutions for them,” Kammeyer said. “While volunteering, I met the most radical people, most progressive people, the nicest people, the smartest people I’ve ever met.”
While it was hard for Kammeyer to leave her High Rock friends in West Virginia, she said she was ready to return to her family and her hometown. When searching for a job, MU was a perfect match because it allows her to continue to work in education, but in a different role.
“Since I grew up in Columbia, I’ve always been drawn to Mizzou,” Kammeyer said. “I love the energy of the campus and the buzz of all these brilliant minds. There are so many people doing great things to help better the community, and I think just around that is so cool.”
Though she is new to the job, Kammeyer already said she feels at home at the Honors College. As for the future, Kammeyer is excited to be a part of MU family and to help mold the future leaders of our community.
“Education is the foundation for all the change that happens in the world,” Kammeyer said. “If you aren’t educated on what’s happening, the problems, the successes, then you won’t know where to go from there. Whether it’s here in the Honors College with students at the University, or it’s with girls at summer camp, it’s connected and all very important.”
All members of the Honors College – students, faculty, and alumni – are encouraged to stop by the College offices in Lowry Hall and say hello to Kammeyer!