Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Profiles of college students with disabilities


Bethany Garner, who has rheumatoid arthritis of the spine,
attends Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Diane D'Amcio, education writer at The Press of Atlantic City (NJ), profiled nine college students with disabilities April 27. The article gives good insight into how students overcome barriers to succeed in college.

It's great to see stories like these that illustrate that with proper accommodations students with disabilities can succeed in college.

The nine students profiled are:


  • Shakur Burton, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, attends the Culinary Institute at Atlantic Cape Community College because he always liked cooking.

  • Marissa Faralli, who has Down syndrome, is at the The College of New Jersey through a two-year-old grant-funded Career and Community Studies program created to see how college programs can accommodate and benefit students with significant disabilities.

  • Peter Bongiovanni has a central auditory processing disorder and is studying history at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey with an eye towards becoming a teacher one day.

  • Vincent Russo, who has cerebral palsy, attends Richard Stockton College of New Jersey as a communications major and plans for a career in sports broadcasting.

  • Bethany Garner has rheumatoid arthritis in her spine and studies speech pathology and audiology at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. (She's pictured above.)

  • Christopher Nigro, who is deaf, studies journalism at Rowan College and wants to be a sports writer one day.

  • Jacqueline Bavier survived a brain tumor in high school and now attends Richard Stockton College as a freshman communications major.

  • Michael Gardner received a severe head injury when he was hit by a car as a 6-year-old. He recently graduated from Richard Stockton College with a degree in environmental sciences.

  • Anthony Lanzelloti, who is blind and has several other disabilities, attends classes at Atlantic Cape Community College’s Mays Landing campus with the hopes of getting more job skills for his future.