Meals on Wheels of Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky is pleased to have partnered with DePaul Cristo Rey High School for the 2026-2026 academic year. As a Corporate Work Study Partner, our Volunteer Manager Tammy Hitchcock managed Ke’Mariya, a student associate, during her junior year. Ke’Mariya gained valuable real-world experience and professional skills while working directly with Meals on Wheels volunteers, seniors and team members.
About DePaul Cristo Rey’s Corporate Work Study Program
DePaul Cristo Rey is a college-prep high school sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. Through its Corporate Work Study Program, the school partners with companies and organizations throughout Greater Cincinnati to provide immersive professional learning experience, similar to an internship. Students spend school days working in fields and professions that interest them, developing key life skills alongside their curriculum.
Ke’Mariya spent five days a month working at Meals on Wheels’ main office in South Fairmount. She helped coordinate and manage volunteers, create volunteer reports, learn about and participate in new volunteer experiences and spent time learning all aspects of other departments in the agency. Her year culminated in a presentation about her experience to Meals on Wheels leadership.
About our Student Associate
Ke’Mariya is a junior whose favorite classes include algebra, chemistry and economics. She is a three-sport athlete who plays volleyball, basketball and flag football. She says she has always loved math and has always enjoyed helping people, so she is interested in career fields that combine the two. While exploring Corporate Work Study Program choices (DePaul Cristo Rey partners span accounting, law, business, education and social and youth services, for example), she gravitated to healthcare and organizations serving people. She found an ideal fit with Meals on Wheels.
“I didn’t know about Meals on Wheels until I came here, but the experience that I’ve had has been good,” says Ke’Mariya. “This position helped me learn more about nonprofit organizations. I never really knew what a nonprofit was until I came here.”
help them during the winter when they have shutdowns, help them get to doctor’s appointments that they can’t make it to. Bus drivers go into their house and help them put things away. I think it’s important because as you get older, you don’t see a lot of people. You’re not as able to be as mobile as you want. Being able to get out of the house and interact with other people, I think that’s good.”
Throughout the year, Ke’Mariya spent time observing and participating in Meals on Wheels’ operations, from food production to distribution to transportation services. She enjoyed shadowing transportation routes, observing how drivers interact with seniors and telling curious seniors about the program she’s in and what she’s studying in school. “They were surprised to see me on the bus since I’m a young person,” she says.
She also prepared meals for home-delivered and congregate meal services in our kitchen, packed and organized meals for distribution in our production facility and assemble snack boxes that accompany seniors’ meal deliveries. Meals on Wheels employs 145 team members but relies on volunteer support to meet the needs of the population we serve.
Ke’Mariya says getting to know the volunteers was uniquely memorable. They range from corporate groups to other nonprofits to families and other schools. She says, “The volunteers are very happy when they come in. It goes from the whole room being silent to full of joy and conversations.
One group in particular includes Stepping Stones, a nonprofit serving adults with disabilities. They regularly volunteer at Meals on Wheels once a week. Ke’Mariya says she always enjoyed seeing one of their volunteers, Robert, who always remembered she would be there at the same time they were. “Our conversations be good. He asks personal questions like how my siblings are doing, how stuff is going in school, things like that,” Ke’Mariya says.
Throughout her time as a student associate, Ke’Mariya says she gained problem-solving and communication skills that coincide with skills she develops in school. She enjoyed key differences between school and the workplace, citing the ability to move around more freely and to help people with things they need.
Manager Tammy Hitchcock says “KeMariya was not familiar with nonprofit work until she came to Meals on Wheels as an intern. Her experience here has changed her mind about what she might be interested in as a career.”
Overall, Ke’Mariya says she enjoyed the experience here as a student associate. “I feel like I would go into a nonprofit organization, especially because I feel like I’m fit to be put in a position to help people. I’ve always been like that. So, think it’s a good idea for me sometime in the future.”