Arlington Heights native has same name as ISIS victim
Kayla Mueller was blissfully unaware that a tragedy bearing her name was playing out on the other side of the world, until she woke up that Tuesday morning.
The day the White House confirmed reports that a 26-year-old human rights activist held by ISIS was dead, another Kayla Mueller awoke in her dorm at the University of Dayton. Her phone was blowing up with text messages, her Facebook wall plastered with messages from people she hadn't heard from in years.
“Everyone wanted to know if I was OK,” said Mueller, an Arlington Heights native and 2012 Rolling Meadows High School graduate. “In all three of my classes that day, my professors brought it up, and the whole week, people kept asking me about it.”
Mueller was so immersed in her studies, and in her jobs as a staff writer for the Flyer News and a videographer for Flyer athletics, she was unaware of the tragedy that had befallen the other Mueller in Syria.
“I'm a communications major. I should have been more on top of world news,” Mueller said. “But clearly my friends and classmates were, judging by how many messages I received.”
Since then, the more Mueller has learned about her namesake, the more she admires her.
“She was so selfless and brave,” Mueller said. “To me, she just epitomized what it means to be a servant leader.”
The Northwest suburban Mueller shares some of the same passions. At Rolling Meadows, she led service projects that sent video games and DVDs to the troops, and a T-shirt drive for needy families in Jamaica and Colombia.
In Dayton, Mueller volunteers for Habitat for Humanity and joined a mission trip to New Orleans, where she and other Dayton students helped rebuild neighborhoods affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Her aunt, Elaine Wiegel, lives about an hour away from Prescott, Arizona, where Kayla Mueller the human rights worker grew up and where her parents still live. Wiegel's daughter attends Northern Arizona University, where the young aid worker attended.
“She reminds me so much of you,” Wiegel wrote to her niece. “She was a humanitarian, always wanting to help others, like you; she wrote for the college newspaper, like you; she loved to play music, like you; and she was liked by many, like you. I feel so bad for her family.”
The coincidence prompted Mueller to write a story for the Flyer News, which ran Monday. By her own account, Mueller said, it was the most fragile piece she had ever written.
“I'm usually writing stories to get people to go to concerts,” she said. “This was deeply personal. I guess I hoped that my classmates would step back and realize how much is going on the world.”
Mueller will graduate in May with a degree in communications and minors in marketing and sociology. She hopes to land an entry-level marketing position — ideally one for a nonprofit.
“My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Kayla Jean Mueller,” Mueller wrote in closing her newspaper story. “In death, she has taught this Kayla Mueller so much about life.”