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Gulliver Prep senior Amanda Mechaber is heading to the University of Michigan in the fall, majoring in Movement Science in the School of Kinesiology. After she attains her bachelor’s degree, she’s considering continuing her education to become a physical therapist.
Mechaber says she’s always been interested in exercise and a healthy lifestyle. She is a runner and ran cross country and track all four years of high school.
Over the years she’s had a couple of injuries that sent her to physical therapy as part of her rehab.
“I had one ankle injury sophomore year and the other one was a hip injury junior year,” she says.
She says she really enjoyed the physical therapy process. And it dovetails with her desire to have a career where she can help people.
While she liked running more than the actual competition, she was a strong enough runner to qualify for district and regional competitions. Running track, she preferred the long-distance events like the 800 and 1600.
“I love running on my own for the health benefits and the mental benefits,” she says.
Her wish to help others led Mechaber to the program “We Finish Together.” Starting her junior year, she collected and donated used medals. Those medals and an accompanying note or letter are given to people who would benefit from an act of kindness.
Because of the pandemic, she switched her focus to honor frontline health care workers.
“I’d attach a card and some ribbons and write a message of hope,” she says. “‘Have strength,’ or ‘you’ll get through this.’ When I delivered them during the pandemic, there was a drive to support health care workers at UM.”
At school, she’s the president of the “Together We Innovate.”
“We work with Breakthrough Miami middle school students,” she says. “We teach them STEM activities. It’s split into four strands, Engineering, Health, Computers and Forensics.”
As president, she oversees all the strands. She personally works with the engineering group. She started in the engineering program her freshman year.
This year was harder because Breakthrough Miami classes went virtual.
“They zoomed in from their computers,” she says.
They had to revise the lessons to teach concepts instead of having the students participate in a hands-on project.
When they were able to do the hands-on projects, she enjoyed teaching the kids the egg drop lesson.
“The egg drop is fun because they get excited about it and they get competitive,” she says. “Slingshot was another one – they would see how far their marshmallow would go.”
In those lessons they learn about engineering, the design process, and teamwork.
Last year, Mechaber was part of the team that retrofit a go-cart for the Sunchase Solar Go Cart Race.
“We were preparing for our competition when COVID hit,” she says.
This year, because of COVID restrictions, the team was not able to ready a car for competition.
Her senior year, Mechaber was student government treasurer and the communications director for the National Art Honor Society. She’s also a member of the Cum Laude Society, the National Honor Society, the Spanish Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta and the Science National Honor Society.
For art, Mechaber creates sculptures. Her portfolio focuses on “objects in motion.”
“One of my pieces is a duck swimming in water,” she says.
Since the start of the pandemic, Mechaber started a business on Instagram (@gameday.collective). She makes college accessories such as scrunchies and bandanas or hair clips.
“I started selling to the seniors last year. I took a break throughout the school year, but started back up recently.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
