When the funeral bills mounted, #MoveInMiami made a difference

After a graduate student sends much of his stipend to his family in Africa, he receives an unexpected gift to pay for food and a winter jacket

By J.M. Green, assistant director, content

When his father collapsed, Emmanuel Acheampong was teaching eighth grade in Accra, Ghana’s capital along the Gulf of Guinea. Emmanuel found the owner of a trotro, an urban commercial van used to transport people and goods, who was willing to drive him the 200 miles north through the Eastern and Ashanti regions to his hometown of Kumasi.


Emmanuel Acheampong, a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership, accepted a gift from the International Student and Scholar Services’ #MoveInMiami fund to pay for groceries and winter clothing after he sent most of his stipend home to Ghana to help cover fees for his father’s funeral.

His father, George, spent three weeks in the hospital with an unspecified illness. This predicament was familiar to the eight Acheampong children. Four years earlier, they’d lost their mother to what the doctors labeled “a short illness.”

“But we kept telling ourselves, he’ll be fine; he’ll be fine,” Emmanuel said.

For a while, the retired Ghanaian Army captain responded to treatments.

“One of the evenings I went to say hi to him. I was trying to encourage him that he will be fine. He knew he would be fine,” Emmanuel said. “We believe in God so he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ll be fine.’”

That was the last evening Emmanuel spoke with his father. George was 74 years old. He left behind four adult children and four young children, but no more pension and no more financial support.

The Ashanti people waited over a year to bury George’s body. In the West African nation, people revere the dead. Funerals are plush and prolonged community occasions. And expensive.

Emmanuel left Ghana before the funeral and before his family’s funeral bills were calculated.


Emmanuel’s first semester

He arrived in Oxford to begin the 2022 fall semester as a new doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership. His first trip to the United States. His second trip out of Africa. Emmanuel would earn a stipend as a graduate assistant for the Department of Educational Leadership.

“[My family] had some financial commitments that we had to take care of like the casket, the ceremony, pay the people who are going to come to do the set up and all that,” Emmanuel said. “It’s quite involved.”

After paying for insurance, semester fees, rent, utilities, and a little food, Emmanuel sent the remainder of his stipend home.

Near the end of the semester, he visited Miami’s office of International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) to investigate receiving financial assistance.

Molly Heidemann, director of ISSS, and her team had a plan. For the past few years, ISSS has participated in #MoveInMiami, Miami’s annual day of giving that welcomes the first-year students to Oxford on move-in day, the Thursday before classes start.

#MoveInMiami campaign for ISSS

In 2022, #MoveInMiami received 5,346 gifts totaling $3,704,889 for more than 200 departments, student clubs, sports teams, and other Miami-affiliated groups. With the donations ISSS received, its staff has focused on building an emergency fund to help international students overcome challenges and survive sudden financial shortfalls. The emergency fund received $1,300 in donations last year.

International students can face a variety of challenges while studying in the United States from natural disasters to struggling family businesses back in their home countries.

Recently, two Miami international graduate students expecting children received assistance. ISSS helped a Nigerian student buy baby clothes, dietary supplements, and medications for his wife and aided a graduate student from Bangladesh who needed medical tests related to her pregnancy.

Other students have sought assistance due to significant currency devaluation.

“If their currency back home drops, the value drops, and all of the sudden their money isn't worth as much here, and so we've seen issues related to that,” Heidemann said.

ISSS picnic
International students meet each other and learn more about Miami at their orientation picnic.

She continued, “There have been students who lost a family member back home, who was maybe a bread winner, or funds needed to go toward funeral expenses.”

Students such as Emmanuel, who was sending as much money as he could back to his family in Ghana. Heidemann asked him if he was prepared for the Ohio winter. Emmanuel had no gloves, scarf, hat, or boots. Because of #MoveInMiami, ISSS was able to give Emmanuel $300. Because their funds are limited, they provide most students with $200 to $300, Heidemann said.

Emmanuel stretched his $300 to cover groceries, a winter jacket and boots, and a suit jacket for when he attends conferences.

Love and Honor for international students

Despite the modest funds per student, the 15-year Miami veteran is determined to advocate for her international students, for their personal wellness, and for the health of the entire campus.

ISSS students sitting around a table
International students attend ISSS' Global Friendship Thanksgiving Dinner.


“Any student who goes to college is hopefully getting prepared to work in our global society, our global economy,” Heidemann said. “They need to experience other viewpoints, other cultural backgrounds, get to know people from other cultures – develop some cultural competencies so that when they are out in the workforce, they know how to work with people who are different from them.

“Especially for those [students] who can't study abroad for one reason or another,” she added. “They are able to have class with students who are from potentially 80 plus different countries because that’s how many different countries we have represented here.

“I think [international students] very much add to the diversity of our population; just the vibrancy of our population.”

Emmanuel appreciates being a member of the Miami population and is grateful for the ISSS team’s care. He never expected the financial gift.

“Considering my plight … wow, that’s a nice gesture. To try to come through for an international student is really something good that they are doing. When the money hit my account, I got excited. It means a lot to get funds like that to help to offset some bills that I have.”

#MoveInMiami is Aug. 24, 2023. You will have an opportunity to donate to the International Student Emergency Fund and more than 200 other organizations during Miami’s annual day of giving at MoveInMiami.org.

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