Katelyn Hainline (BA strategic communication, ‘10) is serving as an AmeriCorps Project REACH advisor in Cincinnati, Ohio. Project REACH (Realizing Educational & Career Hopes) works with eleventh and twelfth grade students to provide information and instruction on how to explore educational opportunities and navigate the college application and financial aid process. Project REACH advisors act as mentors, providing the benefit of peer support in college preparation by using themselves as examples of peers who attended and graduated from college.

Hainline is assigned to the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, a nonprofit organization on-site in the Cincinnati Public Schools. Withrow University High School is Hainline's "home" thorugh June, 2011. “I am working with 60 high school juniors and seniors to help them navigate the college process,” explains Hainline.That process includes academic planning, financial aid advising, researching colleges and universities and accompanying students on college visits, and offering much needed support for the entrance exams.

“I have learned about so much about diversity, poverty, what it means to be a minority, and to struggle to get an education," Hainline said. "This experience will stay with me for the rest of my life."

Hainline volunteered as a Peer Advisor in the Arts and Sciences Career Services Office in her final year at Ohio State. Stephanie Ford, director of Career Services and Hainline's supervisor, said of Hainline: "She was the cream of the crop... with a good heart."

AmeriCorps commitment goes until the end of June, 2011. At that time, she may sign up for another year in the Corps.