Alumni
Kyle McCollom
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In high school, Kyle raised $16,000 to send 80 students, parents, and teachers to Reynosa, Mexico, to build five homes for homeless families living in a landfill.
After his first year as an Ingram Scholar, Kyle traveled to Kampala, Uganda to work at Nsambya, a clinic for patients with HIV/AIDS. During his time at the clinic, he noticed that some newly diagnosed HIV+ patients would not be funneled into the clinic process due to a lack of structure. Kyle streamlined the patient flow system by interviewing clinicians, staff, and patients and using their insights to develop a large poster with a simplified, step-by-step process for patients to follow. The head clinician later indicated wait time was reduced by half for many patients with the new poster in place outside the clinic.
As a rising junior, Kyle spent the summer in Washington, D.C. working to increase the poor's access to health care and helped create an advocacy video that was seen and commented on by President Obama.
Kyle now lives at the Dismas House, a halfway house for former offenders, as a student resident. He is drawing on his experience at the house to start a screen-printing social enterprise called Triple Thread Apparel to empower Dismas House residents through job training and employment. Through Triple Thread, Kyle ultimately intends to reduce crime rates, the world's largest prison population, and the tax burden of our nation's prison system.
Kyle is incredibly thankful to the Ingram family for their extreme generosity and hopes to fulfill Mr. Ingram's original vision for the Ingram Scholarship Program through a career in social enterprise.