Growing up, Illinois State University freshman Anyiah Montgomery learned valuable lessons from her mother about responsibility, hard work, and about being more adventurous.
A first-generation college student and the oldest of three, Montgomery thrived in high school while helping take care of her brother and sister and her grandmother, who suffered a debilitating stroke at a young age. She handled a lot of day-to-day duties that were difficult for her grandmother. The two continue to have a unique and close relationship. Montgomery balanced lending a loving hand to family members with working and maintaining a busy school schedule.
At George Westinghouse College Preparatory High School in Chicago, Montgomery served on student council and as a peer mentor and ComED youth ambassador. She was also an intern at The Michael and Karyn Lutz Center for After School Matters, the largest and most successful provider of after-school and summer programs for high school teens in the country. A highlight of that experience was helping design and construct a gardening trail for a mental health facility.
Montgomery, 18, has friends from high school at Illinois State but is eager to make her own way, saying that she’s able to navigate her own path. She’s living in a residence hall with three roommates, none of whom she knew before arriving on campus in August.
“It’s a brand new experience, but it’s pretty great,” Montgomery said. “We’re all from different cultural backgrounds, so you learn people skills and to deal with each other’s differences.”
Embracing the adventure of new things is a lesson learned from her mother, Veranick Bell, who works as a medical assistant at a hospital.
“My mom is a person of diverse interests, and she influenced me to widen my own interests and try different things,” Montgomery said. “In some ways I felt like a voyager going with her to check out all the things that she was interested in.”
Montgomery has made her mother proud by using the analytical part of her brain for most of her academic pursuits but also by discovering her creative, artistic side.
“I love art, and I love painting,” she said. “During the pandemic it was very therapeutic to paint.”
In the classroom Montgomery loves math and is majoring in managerial economics. Originally she was set on studying engineering at a college in Alabama, where she has relatives, but an influential teacher during high school inspired her to rethink her plan.
“I originally wanted to study civil engineering down South, but my AP economics class with my favorite teacher Andrew Johnson, who was also my counselor, caused me to step back and reevaluate myself,” Montgomery said. “I fell in love with the discipline, and mathematics is my passion. That class definitely sparked something in me.”
After being awarded two Redbird Scholarships and with a new academic direction in mind, she picked Illinois State for her undergraduate years. Staying close to family was a big factor, especially after making a college visit to Alabama and realizing how far she would be from the people she loves.
“Leaving home, I learned that separation anxiety is real,” she said.
Career-wise, she’ll be working out the details over these next few years, but giving back is part of the plan.
“I have the peer mentor experience and the econ experience and business part, so now let me apply that back in my home community,” Montgomery said. “When you drive in certain areas you see vacant lots and properties, and I’d like to recreate those in some way. Maybe like the After School Matters program that helped me so much.”
At the top of Montgomery’s agenda at the beginning of the semester was to seek out people from her major, including faculty and alumni, to help her acclimate to her new world. Those connections were how she came to join the Undergraduate Women in Economics registered student organization. Her favorite part has been getting to know her peers and helping each other out.
“We struggle and thrive together,” Montgomery said. “I’ve learned that even the little conversations matter, and you never know what you can do for someone else and what you can do for each other. It’s more than just a couple of nerds coming together to learn about forming a company. I love the friendship and the networking.”
Read about all of the students featured in our “Newest Redbirds” series at News.IllinoisState.edu.
