Inside Education and Health Sciences

By Shannon Miller

For much of her childhood, Lucy Wheeland thought she was alone.

She struggled with that feeling because she knew she was deeply loved. Adopted from Guatemala when she was 10 months old, Wheeland grew up in St. Louis with loving parents, extended family and friends. She even decided to attend the University of Dayton because a few relatives were graduates, and she wanted to continue a family tradition.

Still, Wheeland struggled with anxiety, panic attacks and other mental health issues during her teenage years, and she realized those issues were related to her life as an adoptee.

She eventually shared those feelings with a counselor and her parents, and in fall 2022, she decided to share her story with her classmates. Her story would help her win a philanthropy tournament designed to teach students about the importance of giving, and she received national recognition from an organization supporting mental health assistance for adoptees and their families.

Each fall, students in Sales and Fundraising in Sport (HSS 358), a junior- and senior-level course in the sport management program in the Department of Health and Sport Science, compete to raise money for an organization they want to support. It's just one example of how UD works to support a culture of giving while honoring an alum who spent his life helping others.

The money comes from The Gary Mioli Leadership in Community Fund, honoring Gary Mioli '79, who dedicated his professional life to leading young people on and off the football field as a teacher and coach in Park Ridge, N.J. Mioli died in 2014 at 57.

In 2016, the sport management program, along with Mioli's family, friends, former classmates and students, established the fund to honor his legacy of leadership, service and the education of the whole person. The fund provides sport management students the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in their communities by becoming advocates for organizations whose service holds personal meaning.

Wheeland, a sport management senior, knew she wanted to support an organization related to adoption. She first considered an agency where her mother worked that provided financial assistance to families and individuals looking to adopt. When she presented her idea to her professor, Peter Titlebaum, he challenged her choice.

"Every charity we pick is going to be a good charity," she recalled him saying. "There's no bad charity. But you're here to tell a story. If you pick the charity your mom worked for, you're telling her story. You have to tell your own story."

Wheeland wondered what story she had to tell. She had long been an advocate for mental health because of her own mental health struggles, and began searching for organizations that might help others like her. She found CASE, The Center For Adoption Support and Education, a nonprofit offering mental health services and educational resources for members of the adoption and foster community.

She knew immediately CASE was the type of organization she wished she'd encountered as a teenager dealing with the complexities of her identity. Back then, she wondered why she dealt with panic attacks and anxiety. And, even though her family never made an issue about the difference in their skin colors, why did she struggle with feeling different?

"To have these conversations and feelings is huge and a lot of people forget that because mental health is already a stigma," Wheeland said. "You never know if you're supposed to really talk about it and how you're feeling. I want to emphasize that it's not my parents' fault I had these feelings and emotions because they didn't know what to do, just as much as I didn't. My parents did everything they could to help me and they still do."

Wheeland knows that managing mental health issues will be a lifelong journey. She still feels separation anxiety when her parents come visit her at UD and return home, and she understands now why she struggled so much when her brother left for college when she was just a kindergartner.

"I'm at a comfortable spot with my mental health where I'm very happy to talk about it and how I feel, and I think my parents are happy to talk about it as well from their perspective," she said. "There's no guidebook to parenting, especially when you bring home a child from a foreign country or even another place in America. Maybe my parents can use this as an avenue for other adoptive parents too. They can tell others that from the outside we might look like a perfect, happy family, but on the inside we've had these struggles and this is how we dealt with them."

After Wheeland won the philanthropy tournament, earning $2,500 from the Mioli fund to donate to CASE, she shared her presentation video with the organization. The CEO responded by inviting her to their gala in Washington D.C. in April, where she'll be honored as a "Star of Adoption" and be recognized for her advocacy.

Wheeland might be most proud, however, of the impact she's had on others close to her. She's gotten feedback on her video from other adoptees and adoptive parents who said they've had similar experiences. Thanks to her story, they know they're not alone.

"I never knew other people would be able to find a connection with my life," she said. "When I'm talking about something that matters to me, I'm definitely not afraid to speak up and be confident, and just use my voice to help others. That's what I've learned the most here at UD – understanding I'm a part of something much bigger than myself, and that what I do now can have an impact on people in the future."