Joe Hornaday
Greensburg Daily News
May 05, 2008 10:56 pm
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Greensburg resident Amy Lyn Kuhns will be graduating with an associate of science degree later this month, but the road to her diploma has been an inspiring yet difficult one.
Kuhns had been home-schooled for most of her childhood, but did attend area Christian schools occasionally. According to her mother Lucy Rumsey, she was compelled to take her daughter out of school and begin the home-schooling process.
“We followed a strict Christian curriculum throughout the years,” Rumsey said.
When Rumsey’s special needs son Jonathan was born, it was just before her daughter turned 10. At the time, the family was living in Geneva, Wis. Baby Jonathan was born with a heart defect that caused many emergency trips to the children’s hospital located in Milwaukee. According to Rumsey, it would take an hour’s drive to get to there.
“Amy stayed with friends from church while I would spend days in the hospital with Jonathan,” Rumsey said. “By the time the six weeks was up I had insomnia from listening for Jonathan to breathe at night and trying to nurse.”
The process wore heavily on Rumsey, and she spent much of that time feeling exhausted. She had little time to spare for her daughter’s school work and lesson plans.
According to Rumsey, they offered her daughter a choice. She could work through the teacher guides herself and write out the lesson plans or go to the Christian school at their church. The 10-year-old chose to study the teacher curriculum and develop her own lesson plans.
“Not only did she plan her lessons and do the assignments for me to check, she also made the grocery list from what food we had on hand and planned the menu as well,” Rumsey added.
However, money was tight due to all of young Jonathan’s expenses. The financial situation led the family to depend on one another more and more. Rumsey would lead her daughter around the supermarket, but eventually let her choose the meals and pay the cashier. She did that throughout all of the years she was home, her mother said.
As Rumsey’s health declined, she would have to sit in the car while her daughter did the shopping and loaded the groceries into the car.
As the years wore on, Rumsey’s daughter would begin attending Suburban Christian School in Greenwood as a freshman. Due to her crushing financial responsibilities, Rumsey made the heartbreaking decision to tell her daughter that she needed to come back home for schooling.
Before Rumsey could break the news to her daughter, the young lady came to speak to her mother. She told her that she was being compelled to come back for home-schooling. According to Rumsey, she felt like she was being self-centered and focused only on what she herself had to do.
At age 16, she became an administrative assistant at her family’s home office for their CPA firm. There, Kuhns learned payroll, receivables and payables. She has continued doing that kind of work since.
“She has been a blessing from the Lord,” Rumsey said.
When the family moved to Greensburg, Kuhns saw an opportunity and became the assistant director of the Wednesday night children’s ministry, called Kingdom Kids. Later, she became the director. Kuhns then moved on to the Good Shepherd Christian Academy as an assistant to preschoolers.
“Amy always knew she wanted to be a teacher but didn’t want to go to college until she knew what age group,” Rumsey claimed.
In the summer of 2006, Kuhns enrolled in Ivy Tech seeking to obtain her associates science degree in early childhood education.
While enrolled at Ivy Tech, Kuhns filled in for kindergarten teachers who were unable to make it to class. Administrators were so pleased with Kuhns’s results that they offered her a position in her second year at Ivy Tech teaching kindergarten through fourth grade at Good Shepherd’s.
“She loves working with children and has enjoyed going to Ivy Tech,” Rumsey said.
Her presence at Ivy Tech did not only result in a good job. Kuhns also met the man who would become her husband.
“Amy has really persevered when times were hard,” Rumsey said.
According to Rumsey, Kuhns will continue with her bachelor’s degree at St. Mary of the Wood College through an on-line program.
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Greensburg Daily News