Spring Break
Student organizes group to help with family grief
By: Jane Lee
Issue date: 4/15/09 Section: News
Losing a parent before starting college can make an already tough transition nearly unbearable. Ally Killian, who lost her father the summer before her freshman year at Texas A&M, knows how difficult coping with such a loss can be and wanted to do something to help others facing personal tragedies.
"It's not really something you talk about while making new friends and starting to get involved," Killian, a sophomore information and operations major, said of a personal situation that made becoming involved at A&M a challenge.
Her solution: a chapter of the Students of Ailing Mothers and Fathers, a national organization created to support college students coping with the illness or death of a loved one and empowering college students to fight back against terminal illness.
Killian decided to search for support groups in the community and found Ailing Mothers and Fathers to be the most beneficial. "I knew that I needed to start a chapter here to give everyone like me a place to really open up," Killian said. "Starting this organization has helped me do something positive with my suffering, and my Dad would really like that."
David Fajgenbaum, a student at Georgetown University, founded Ailing Mothers and Fathers in 2004 after his mother died from brain cancer. He said he wanted to devise an outlet for students - like himself - who had to cope with the illness and death of a loved one in college, a usually carefree time.
"I had spent my entire life watching my mother's unconditional love at work and selflessness in her every action," Fajgenbaum said. It was his mother's legacy, he said, that pushed him to start the support group.
It began with 10 of his peers in the Georgetown community; a number that soon grew to 400. Now, there are 24 chapters across the country.
"No one should go through a death alone," Fajgenbaum said.
As founder and president of the Ailing Mother and Fathers chapter at A&M, Killian said the support group has become a top priority in her life. The peer-led, open-discussion group brings together student and encourages them to support one another, and provides a positive, supportive and proactive outlet for thoughts, feelings and experiences.
Ailing Mothers and Fathers plans to have a service group open to all students. The group will have monthly projects in which it will volunteer and participate in commemorating the lost or ill loved ones of a support group members. The group will start the Angels program, where faculty members are selected as mentors, or "Angels," to each member of the support group.
"The Angels program provides faculty members with the opportunity to really make a difference in a student's life," Killian said.
Student family facts:
Statistics show 35 percent to 48 percent of college students have lost a loved one in the past two years and that 8.6 percent of students have had their academic performance affected because of grief.
Get involved
AMF will be part of the National College Student Grief Awareness Week from April 19-25. For information on how to get involved with AMF, visit www.studentsofamf.org
"It's not really something you talk about while making new friends and starting to get involved," Killian, a sophomore information and operations major, said of a personal situation that made becoming involved at A&M a challenge.
Her solution: a chapter of the Students of Ailing Mothers and Fathers, a national organization created to support college students coping with the illness or death of a loved one and empowering college students to fight back against terminal illness.
Killian decided to search for support groups in the community and found Ailing Mothers and Fathers to be the most beneficial. "I knew that I needed to start a chapter here to give everyone like me a place to really open up," Killian said. "Starting this organization has helped me do something positive with my suffering, and my Dad would really like that."
David Fajgenbaum, a student at Georgetown University, founded Ailing Mothers and Fathers in 2004 after his mother died from brain cancer. He said he wanted to devise an outlet for students - like himself - who had to cope with the illness and death of a loved one in college, a usually carefree time.
"I had spent my entire life watching my mother's unconditional love at work and selflessness in her every action," Fajgenbaum said. It was his mother's legacy, he said, that pushed him to start the support group.
It began with 10 of his peers in the Georgetown community; a number that soon grew to 400. Now, there are 24 chapters across the country.
"No one should go through a death alone," Fajgenbaum said.
As founder and president of the Ailing Mother and Fathers chapter at A&M, Killian said the support group has become a top priority in her life. The peer-led, open-discussion group brings together student and encourages them to support one another, and provides a positive, supportive and proactive outlet for thoughts, feelings and experiences.
Ailing Mothers and Fathers plans to have a service group open to all students. The group will have monthly projects in which it will volunteer and participate in commemorating the lost or ill loved ones of a support group members. The group will start the Angels program, where faculty members are selected as mentors, or "Angels," to each member of the support group.
"The Angels program provides faculty members with the opportunity to really make a difference in a student's life," Killian said.
Student family facts:
Statistics show 35 percent to 48 percent of college students have lost a loved one in the past two years and that 8.6 percent of students have had their academic performance affected because of grief.
Get involved
AMF will be part of the National College Student Grief Awareness Week from April 19-25. For information on how to get involved with AMF, visit www.studentsofamf.org
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