Kaylee Mueller began her junior year this fall at UW-Green Bay by launching a new student organization. She started “Ability Allies,” a group dedicated to providing resources and educational opportunities to students with and without disabilities. Kaylee, a 2023 Council Scholarship recipient, is particularly excited to get peers who are not disabled involved. She believes education is the key to future inclusion. “From disability rights to history of the movement, there are lots of issues to bring to people who just don’t know,” Kaylee says.
The Campbellsport resident is carrying a full load of classwork along with her extracurricular work. And in addition to the new “Ability Allies” group, Kaylee was just appointed as Leadership Development Director of the UW-Green Bay Resident Hall Apartment Association. It’s a packed schedule for the Psychology major who is also carrying minors in Sociology & Anthropology and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Kaylee uses her own experiences—especially those related to independent mobility on campus—to inform her work in and out of the classroom. “Kaylee has been a great advocate for herself, and I know she is an advocate for others as well,” says UW Green Bay Career Accessibility Program Coordinator Cassandra Matte. This fall, Kaylee started her second year working in the office of Student Accessibility Services, where, among other things, she proctors student exams.
Kaylee credits her parents, along with her restaurant experience, for her work ethic. “I think my mom raised me and my sibs with a hard work ethic,” she reflects. “But restaurant work has allowed me to meet so many different kinds of people. The people I worked with last summer have become like family to me. And to get their different perspectives on life and to share ideas has been so great and has really opened my mind.” In fact, she went so far as to agree that working in a restaurant should be required experience for anyone pursuing a career in psychology. In a kitchen, she says, “every person on the team is important in their own way.”
Where does Kaylee see herself in 10 years? “Hopefully done with school by then,” she chuckles. Kaylee hopes to work in a career that will allow her to combine clinical counseling with advocacy work.
Meantime, Kaylee says the Council scholarship helps her in a variety of ways. “It’s really helped pay for housing costs,” she says. “I’m living now in a private apartment which has accessibility, but one of the downsides of the accessibility is it costs more.”
