EDGEWOOD, Ky. — Dixie Heights High School senior Max Rubemeyer is making the world a better place through constant compassion.
School counselor Kaitlyn Miller said, “He leads with empathy in the way that he relates to people, and he is so connected to his world. He’s very present; he engages with people, he looks you in the eye when he talks to you, which is not like all other students. He just lives in this kindness and he inherently sees value in all other people and the way he treats people is just always empathetic.”
Rubemeyer looks at life through a different lens because his sibling faces health challenges and requires constant care. As he explained, “My younger brother Dexter is 16 and from birth he has a chromosomal deletion on the 13th band, which has left him nonverbal and he needs heavy assistance with most of his day-to-day routines and activities. (He’s) very heavily reliant on me and my parents, and I would say it certainly impacted how I see other people and how I act here at school. I think he plays a large part in my work with Kindness Club, with Hope Squad and with Ambassadors. The inclusivity of Dixie has certainly come from my work with Dexter and my understanding that not everybody can fit in a certain mold.”
He added, “I think it’s changed me in trying to be empathetic and understand that everyone has an invisible backpack that they carry around that you don’t know what it’s filled with. You don’t know what they’re going through. It’s just shaped the way I’m trying to be kind to every person that I meet.”…