Amy Strecker

Title: Director of Community Content & Director, Young Minds Digital Times Film Competition

Birthday: June 28

College: The University of Texas at Austin & East Carolina University

Degree: Bachelors in English and Secondary Teaching Coursework

Favorite Quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I go be brillant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? [...] Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”

– Marianne Williamson

Amy joined OneSeventeen Media directly following her Teach For America service as a high school English teacher in North Carolina. During her second year teaching in one of the nation’s lowest performing high schools, Amy lead the only class in her school where 100% of her students passed North Carolina’s standardized End-of-Course Exam, and she was named the county’s Outstanding Young Educator in 2006. From her classroom experience, Amy has unique insight into teen minds, and she is intrigued by innovative methods of facilitating relationships between kids, parents and mentors. She misses her students, but loves checking up on them via Facebook and MySpace. (And if any of them are reading this, clean up your profiles!)

Emerging as a first-time blogger in 2007, Amy grew her first corporate blog 4750% in just six months! This last year she served as the Competition Director for the Young Minds Digital Times Film Competition where over 700 participants joined us in our inaugural competition. When she’s not gallivanting with the OneSeventeen Media team, Amy’s days are spent working from home enjoying the simple pleasures of small town life and reminiscing about her first love: Austin, Texas. Amy continues her relationship with Teach For America by serving as a Corps Area Alumni Representative in Eastern North Carolina.

Locally, Amy is an appointed trustee on the County Library Board and has co-founded the Youth Library Council to engage kids in using library services and planning programming. She is most hopeful that by partnering with youth and the Library, together they can create positive opportunities for young adults, who are often plagued by the rural predicament of too much time and nowhere to go. As an active elementary school volunteer, Amy often gets called to tutor, guest read and chaperone outings (unfortunately, while she loves the zoo, she typically has to decline the field trips because of her day job).

About Amy...

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