2016 - Johnson Scholarship Foundation

First to college; first to graduate

December 16, 2016/in Leslie Pendleton, News

Going to college is a point of pride for students who are first in their family to venture into unknown territory. For some, this pride may quickly manifest into uncertainty or concern that they don’t belong. The unfamiliarity of the college environment, complete with oddly named offices like the Bursar and the

Registrar, many first-generation students quickly notice the complexities of college life. For many, it’s easy to feel lost and alone yet we find when students make connections with peers and adults who genuinely care about their success, the impossible turns to possible.

At the University of Florida, I can proudly say we’ve intentionally supported first-generation college students for the last decade. With the start of the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars Program in 2006, the institution made a commitment to financially and personally support nearly 1,250 undergraduate, first-generation students each year. Marrying a full-grant and scholarship financial aid package with a comprehensive support program that includes, but is not limited to peer mentoring, financial literacy education, career preparation, and leadership development has made a difference for nearly 4,000 first-generation students over the last 10 years.

So, how do we ensure first-generation students who come to UF or any university, for that matter, succeed and graduate? My first answer is: we expect them to. High expectations of students previously considered “at-risk” is important. Language matters. We never threaten that “some of you” won’t be here on graduation day. Many tell us family members or friends from their hometowns say such things. We never do.

Our first-generation students are not disadvantaged. We help them uncover their many advantages (i.e. independence, problem-solving, and resilience) that they’ve relied upon to get them through past struggles. These past experiences and how they’ve overcome, positions them well for college success. When college gets hard, as it tends to, they know how to persevere relying on their unique and coveted strengths. We just help point out these strengths every chance we can.

We must also provide the support and needed resources, many mentioned above, tailored specifically to the first-generation experience. This can include engaging alumni to connect with current students to expand their professional network and learn about tips for transitioning out of college. Doing so implies current students will earn a degree and transition to graduate school, professional school, and/or post-graduate employment. First-generation students also benefit from peer mentors as well as life coaches who provide encouragement and the know-how to navigate the complexities of college life and beyond.

For more information about the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars Program or to discuss ways to improve first-generation student success, please contact Dr. Leslie Pendleton, University of Florida, lesliep@ufsa.ufl.edu

Thank You

December 15, 2016/in News

Thinking About “Our Kids”

December 2, 2016/in David Blaikie, News

A book by one of America’s leading scholars was published a few months ago, Our Kids, The American Dream in Crisis , by the sociologist Robert Putnam. Putman is an eloquent and renowned writer and researcher. He is, as the New York Times wrote in a review of Our Kids, “technically a Harvard social scientist, but a better description might be poet laureate of civil society.”

The book provides a compelling description of what poverty in America looks like, and marshals the scientific evidence to draw out in detail the impact of poverty on the educational plans and dreams of the young.

Our Kids is a harsh critique of current American society, both government and civil society. In Putnam’s view, in the past, and as recently as the 1950’s when he grew up, there was a greater regard by citizens for the well being of children in their community; rich or poor, advantaged or disadvantaged, all kids in town were “our kids,” hence the title. This concern was part of a society’s fabric, and played an important role in ensuring equal opportunity and upward social mobility. The book is structured around the life stories or portraits of various people interviewed by the author, followed by an analysis of their stories in view of the science.

Putnam’s focus is on equality of opportunity, and the book’s central question is “Do youth today coming from different social and economic backgrounds in fact have roughly equal chances, and has that changed in recent decades?”

He starts by setting out the facts that show a growing economic inequality, an economic chasm opening up between the poor and non-poor. Income inequality, he argues, has led to a decrease in the equality of opportunity. Increasingly, families live in either uniformly affluent neighborhoods or in uniformly poor neighborhoods. “So while race-based
segregation has been slowly declining, class based segregation has been increasing.” (page 38)

Another chapter focuses on families and notes that from 1965 to 1980 American family life underwent a massive transformation. The Ozzie and Harriet style union, two-parent household with a working dad and stay at home mom, shifted as divorce became epidemic. This and other factors, “have had an unmistakable effect on kids’ lives. In the upper, college educated third of American society, most kids today live with two parents, and such families nowadays typically have two incomes. In the lower, high-school-educated third, however, most kids live with at most one of their biological parents, and in fact, many live in a kaleidoscopic, multi-partner, or blended family, but rarely with more than one wage earner. Children growing up in the lower-tier families perform worse on standardized tests, earn lower grades and stay in school for fewer years. They are more likely to have behavioral problems such as aggression, and psychological problems like anxiety and depression.

The starkness of the picture that Putnam paints comes through clearly in the life stories of the people in the book. His picture is one of two Americas divided by money and social class. The lower class live in poor, crime-ridden areas, where violence is common. They live in blended and extended families with meager resources. Their parents, when present, grew up in similar circumstances. Their caregivers have little time or ability to read to them. Stress levels are high. They attend inferior schools, with teachers who are often uncaring. They have no friends or relatives outside this impoverished community. Social mobility or equality of opportunity doesn’t really exist. By contrast, the top third have not only much more money, they also have all the social advantages: parents and teachers who watch over them, and a broad circle of friends and contacts by virtue of their social class. They live in safe, vibrant communities, and have a staggering array of life opportunities. All of these social facts for both communities directly impact their educational endeavors and dreams, and Professor Putnam concludes that the single most important determinant of success are the resources (negative and positive) that students bring to school, rather than the school itself. As one book reviewer noted, it’s what is in their “backpacks” which they bring to school that makes all the difference.

At one point in his book, Professor Putnam admits that before doing the research, he did not fully understand the inability of the poor to lift themselves out of poverty. He is a person from humble roots. “I did it through dint of hard work,” he thought, “why can’t they?” An astonishing admission from someone who has worked in this field all his life, but I think it speaks to the ignorance of many of us and of our failure to absorb the societal reality which has emerged in the past several decades. Professor Putnam says he now understands.

The True Story of Thanksgiving

November 23, 2016/in News, Rick Williams

The real story of that first Thanksgiving although filled with happiness for the Pilgrims was actually a very difficult time for Indian communities. Many Nations on the eastern seaboard were devastated by diseases such as smallpox and many villages were now uninhabited and the former inhabitants extinct. Here is a part of the story that is rarely told in America today.

One day in 1605, a young Patuxet Indian boy named Tisquantum and his dog were out hunting when they spotted a large English merchant ship off of the coast of Plymouth, Mass. Tisquantum, who later became known as Squanto, had no idea that life as he knew it was about to change forever.

His role in helping the Pilgrims to survive the harsh New England winter and celebrate the “first” Thanksgiving has been much storied as a legend of happy endings, with the English and the Indians coming together at the same table in racial harmony. Few Americans, however, know the story of Squanto’s sad life and the demise of his tribe as a result of its interaction with the Europeans.

This year as we sit down to celebrate that First Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims we should also tell the story of Squanto and the fate of the Patuxet tribe.

Squanto’s fateful journey to infamy begins the day that Capt. George Weymouth who was anchored off the coast of Massachusetts, Weymouth and his sailors captured Squanto and four other tribesmen and took them back to England as slaves because Weymouth thought his financial backers “might like to see” some Indians. Squanto was taken to live with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, owner of the Plymouth Company. Gorges quickly saw Squanto’s value to his company’s exploits in the new world and taught his young charge to speak English so that his captains could negotiate trade deals with the Indians.

In 1614, Squanto was brought back to America to act as a guide and interpreter to assist in the mapping of the New England coast, but was kidnapped along with 27 other Indians and taken to Malaga, Spain, to be sold as slaves for about $25 a piece. When local priests learned of the fate of the Indian, they took them from the slave traders, Christianized them and eventually sent them back to America in 1618.

But his return home was short-lived. Squanto was recognized by one of Gorges’ captains, was captured a third time and sent back to England as Gorges’ slave. He was later sent back to New England with Thomas Dermer to finish mapping the coast, after which he was promised his freedom. In 1619, however, upon returning to his homeland, Squanto learned that his entire tribe had been wiped out by smallpox contracted from the Europeans two years before. He was the last surviving member of his tribe.

In November 1620, the Pilgrims made their now-famous voyage to the coast of Plymouth, which had previously been the center of Patuxet culture. The next year, on March 22, 1621, Squanto was sent to negotiate a peace treaty between the Wampanoag Confederation of tribes and the Pilgrims. We also know that Squanto’s skills as a fisherman and farmer were crucial to the survival of the Pilgrims that first year – contributions which changed history.

But in November 1622, Squanto himself would succumb to smallpox during a trading expedition to the Massachusetts Indians. The Patuxet, like so many other tribes, had become extinct. The lesson of Squanto and the Pilgrims is not one of bitter remembrance, but rather a celebration of the generosity of Indian people. Under the guidance of Squanto, the Pilgrims followed a longstanding Indian tradition of offering thanks. Although we celebrate Thanksgiving as an “American” holiday, its beginnings are Native to the core.

Feasts of gratitude and giving thanks have been a part of Indian culture for thousands of years in Lakota culture, it’s called a Wopila; in Navajo, it’s Hozhoni; in Cherokee, it’s Selu i-tse-i; and in Ho Chunk it’s Wicawas warocu sto waroc. Each tribe, each Indian nation, has its own form of Thanksgiving. But for Indian culture, Thanksgiving doesn’t end when the dishes are put away. It is something we celebrate all year long – at the birth of a baby, a safe journey, a new home.

So when you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this year, remember Squanto and the great sacrifices made by him and his tribe to a people they didn’t know. That is the legacy of the Indian people of New England – one that we can all enjoy.

It is easy to forget (historical amnesia) about the earliest years of our country. Yes, there was conflict but there was also mutually beneficial relationships that helped build the foundation of this country. Thanksgiving Day is one of those special times.

Richard B. Williams (Oglala Lakota/Northern Cheyenne) is a passionate and committed advocate and fierce champion of Native education in the United States. From 1997-2012, he served as president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, a national non-profit scholarship fundraising organization for American Indian students attending tribal colleges and universities which provide culturally based education and are run by the tribes. He presently serves as Indigenous Peoples Programs Consultant for the Johnson Scholarship Foundation.

Paper Headbands

November 18, 2016/in Mike Roberts, News

American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist James Baldwin probably stated it best in the 1989 documentary The Price of the Ticket, when he said,

“It comes as a great shock to discover that Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, when you were rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians were you. It comes as a great shock to discover the country, which is your birthplace and to which you owe your life and your
identity, has not in its whole system of reality involved any place for you.”

When contemplating American Indians in America we soon realize that to many Americans, American Indian History month is American Indians only reality. In fact that reality might be best offered up by anti-racist activist Tim Wise, in his book “White Like Me” when he described that to many, appreciation of other cultures is reserved to “food, fabric and festivals,” with nary a consideration for the socio-political views or the social economic realities these others face.

I’ve shared in writing and speeches on a number of occasions that it seems that I begin each year by having to approach the school’s principal and teachers and educate them about Indians, dispel myths, and fight against the stereotypes they bring to the classroom. And the good news is, this almost always leads to the opportunity to go to my daughters’ classrooms and chat with their classmates about Indians. And for my daughters, this is an important part in them taking pride in their heritage.

Some years are better than others. For example, three years ago, after similar conversations, I still had to specifically ask the principle to remove the goofy Indian caricatures from the entry bulletin board. The past couple of years, however, I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised, so the persistence must be paying off. In fact, I would love to give a special acknowledgement to Jim Heacocks, the principal at my daughters’ school, who last year sent the following to his staff:

Please be sensitive to cultural stereotypes of all of our students at Central. For the obvious reason that half of our students are of Hispanic/Latino ancestry, we are usually very aware of avoiding stereotypes of the Hispanic culture. However, we do have other cultures at Central: Chinese, African American, and Native American, to name a few. At this time of year, we can slip into stereotypes around Thanksgiving, i.e., the Pilgrims and the Indians.

We have Native American families who are very sensitive of cultural stereotypes and we need to ensure we do not propagate those stereotypes. One of the practices to avoid is presenting sacred activities in trivial ways. A popular activity (I saw some on students’ heads at the end of the day today…) is making headbands with feathers. In some Native American tribes feathers are highly religious articles and the aforementioned activity is highly offensive and disrespectful.

I have some resources and information that can help us become more aware of the Native American culture and stereotypes to avoid.

This is just a reminder that we need to be aware of how other cultures may take offense at something that we see as perfectly innocent.

As I have written about before, here at First Nations we spend a fair amount of our time and energy building programs and opportunities for the next generation of culturally competent leaders. I, and most Indian parents, spend and equal if not greater amount of energy doing so at home. We send our kids to school, with the hope that they will survive these attempts at cultural indoctrination. And while we may do so with less fear for their physical well-being than our grandparents had when sending their children off to the horrors of Indian boarding schools, our fear for their self-worth and self-esteem is just as great.

So as much time as I spend railing about what is not going right, let me take the time and acknowledge when it does. It is so refreshing to have a school leader like Mr. Heacocks, and for his work in making my daughters school an okay place to be Indian – Gunalchéesh (Thank you).
Here are a couple of things that you can do to help:

1) drop off, at you kids or grandkids school, a copy of Rethinking Columbus, edited Bill Bigelow and Bob Patterson; and

2) assist school libraries find books that portray Indians as living, thriving cultures, not as victims of history. The American Library Association and the Office of Literacy and Outreach Services compiled a Selective Bibliography and Guide for “I” is Not for Indian: The Portrayal of Native Americans in Books for Young People. Print this off the web and deliver it to the principal and the school librarian.

It’s November – Time to Learn about the Indigenous Peoples of the US!

November 10, 2016/in News, Sherry Salway Black

In November each year, people become interested in American Indians. It originally had to do with – and still does to some extent – the fact that Thanksgiving happens in November. However since 1990, there has been a joint resolution by Congress, approved by the President, proclaiming November to be Native American (or American Indian and Alaska Native) Heritage Month. So people – typically teachers – become very interested in the Native peoples of the U.S. in November. Native people and organizations are asked if they can help educate their students, members, or employees and are happy to do it. It’s a benefit to Native peoples to have others know more than what they were taught in their high school history class or scouts lessons.

Well, if you are interested in learning more about Native peoples in November or all year long, here are some ideas in case you don’t know where to start. If you are able to visit with Native peoples, preferably in their own communities, that is the place to start. If you cannot do that, then you can always read books. I have many favorites but thought I would share just a few recommendations:

If you just want the facts then I would start with “Tribal Nations and the United States: A Brief Introduction.” It is about 45 pages filled with rich infographics and beautiful photographs and much content for you to read and learn. There is a web version you can view and also a PDF to download if you want to share with others.
Anything written by Vine Deloria, Jr. is more than worthwhile. If you don’t know who he is, that is where you start – do a Google search to learn more about him. He was a writer, activist, theologian, historian, lawyer, and teacher. I think his best book to start would be his 1969 “Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto.” In it, he breaks down stereotypes and destroys myths about Native peoples as it captures the story of growing Native power and activist efforts.
“Like a Hurricane” by Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior covers similar ground as Deloria in “Custer Died for Your Sins” in terms of the activist movements in Indian Country but it extends beyond 1970 into critical events that shaped where
we are today.
If you want to learn about an earlier history, then Dee Brown’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West,” is definitely worth reading. It was critically acclaimed when it was published in 1970 and two chapters were later adapted for an HBO film in 2007.
Finally, here are just two recommendations for works of fiction. Michael Dorris’ debut novel and dubbed his best, “Yellow Raft in Blue Water” is the story of three generations of strong Native women set primarily in Montana. And just for fun, I recommend “The Indians Won” by Martin Cruz Smith as an alternate view of history. It is out of print but available on Amazon.

Now that I’ve written this piece, it has made me hungry to re-read some of my favorites so as I head on vacation I’m taking one or two with me. Enjoy learning!

Native American Heritage Month

November 4, 2016/in Malcolm Macleod, News

November is Native American Heritage Month and we will use this space to reflect on the Foundation’s mission to Indigenous Peoples. Later in the month, we will publish pieces from Sherry Salway-Black, who has been a member of our Board since 2006, and from Rick Williams, Foundation Consultant on programs serving Indigenous Peoples.

The Johnson Scholarship Foundation has been investing in Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Canada for 25 years and has granted about $20 million towards that end. Currently, grants in support of Indigenous Peoples total $1.5 million per year. The Foundation’s strategy is to assist economic development through business and entrepreneurship education.

One of the Foundation’s programs is the Entrepreneurship Scholarship, created in 1995. It provides scholarship assistance for students pursuing business or entrepreneurship education. The theory is that the trickle-down effect of this will contribute to business and economic development on Indian reservations.

The Scholarship program has been expanded to serve Indigenous students at institutions other than tribal colleges. Several of our tribal college partners, with our help, have been able to build endowments.

The College of Menominee Nation, Oglala Lakota College and Salish Kootenai College, for example, have built substantial endowments which will fund scholarships to business and entrepreneurship students in perpetuity. They no longer need Foundation grants for this purpose. The Foundation has also worked with A*CF to build an endowed fund to provide scholarships to business and entrepreneurship students at any tribal college.

The Entrepreneurship Scholarship Program has helped over a thousand students graduate from tribal colleges and universities.

Another Foundation program is the country’s only MBA in American Indian Entrepreneurship . This was created in 2001 and was intended to support tribal college faculty in their delivery of the Entrepreneurship Scholarship program. It was designed to
be taken at distance during the traditional academic year and on campus in the summer. This would allow faculty to continue teaching, while obtaining the MBA.

The MBA was funded by the Foundation but developed and delivered by Gonzaga University. The Foundation interviewed several candidates and chose Gonzaga, mainly because Gonzaga really wanted it. Gonzaga’s original mission was to serve American Indians and this was an opportunity to honor that history. Gonzaga also has a highly ranked MBA program and that helped tip the balance.

Gonzaga’s MBA in American Indian Entrepreneurship has produced 59 graduates and is still going strong. In 2013 First Nations Development Institute conducted a
comprehensive evaluation of the program and found that most of its graduates had returned to their respective communities and participated in virtually every aspect of life there. As of 2013, sixteen of the program’s graduates were managing their own businesses, one was a tribal college president and others were in senior positions in tribal and federal governments, colleges and business. In 2014 the Foundation and Gonzaga University entered into an agreement to endow the MBA program with a $2 million fund, which will provide permanent scholarship support for students in this program.
MBA-AIE graduates have traveled and expanded the path for students coming behind them. They act as mentors and role models for Indigenous students, particularly those from 4 year tribal college degree programs, who can pursue the MBA-AIE and continue to live in their community.

Economic growth through education is a long term proposition. There is no quick fix. Development comes from within the community and it takes time. That said, economic growth in Indian Country is increasing. In 2005, the Harvard Project on American Economic Development found in its study of socioeconomic change between the 1990 and 2000 census that “The growth in reservation residents’ per capita income was approximately three times the growth experienced by the average U.S. citizen” (Taylor and Kalt, ix).

The Foundation will continue to invest in the Entrepreneurship Scholarship, the MBA in American Indian Entrepreneurship and in other programs that contribute to economic development in Indian County. We will, in the words of Joseph Marshall III, “Keep Going.”

Inclusion Works

October 27, 2016/in News, Tad Asbury

A Giving Matters blog post earlier this month by Johnson Scholarship Foundation (JSF) and Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities Board Member, King Jordan, describes the staff who support students with disabilities on college campuses as the Secret Sauce that can make a difference in the lives of young people making the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. I couldn’t agree more about the essential role staff play in a young adult’s success. With more than two decades of serving over 21,000 young people, the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities (MFPD) and its Bridges from School to Work (Bridges) program has also perfected the secret sauce: committed, compassionate, quality staff – we call them employer representatives – who match young people with real jobs in businesses that offer advancement opportunities. Built upon Marriott’s long standing culture that puts people first, MFPD-Bridges puts ability first, championing what young adults can do in the competitive workplace. And what’s equally remarkable and tremendously rewarding for staff with the secret sauce, and all of us, is witnessing the outcome: the transformative power of job in a young person’s life.

When we say that the Bridges program transforms lives, we mean it, but we know that transformation doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a gradual process. After all, the youth in this program are still in their formative years—with some kids eager to rush into the world of work, while others are a bit reluctant to leave behind the familiarity of their communities and high schools. Most, however, share one thing in common; young adults come to us with a great deal of uncertainty and trepidation, lacking self-assurance, ambivalent or even
skeptical because other programs made promises that never materialized.

During the months of October and November, Bridges programs across the country hold celebratory events timed to coincide with National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). Hosted by our Board Chair, Richard Marriott, these celebrations recognize youth with disabilities and the employers who hire them. This year’s NDEAM theme, Inclusion Works, seems to carry more poignancy as we’ve gathered in Bridges cities to celebrate not just a first job, but a second, and in some cases, a third job through Bridges. This is because Bridges works with these young adults for one year, sometimes longer, helping them climb the first few steps of a career ladder. We know these steps will set them on a path to independence and lifelong employment.

Take for example a young lady named Jamethia in Dallas, whose first Bridges job was as a steward at a Fairmont Hotel where she worked for a year until the commute to work became unmanageable. Her second Bridges job, also a steward, was much closer to home at the Dallas W Hotel. All along, Jamethia knew that she wanted stewarding to lead her on a culinary career path. So with that goal in sight, she continued to work, juggling her W Hotel job with culinary school, a plan that is paying off. Jamethia has been employed continuously for more than two years and is now on her third job, working for the last nine months in the pastry kitchen at the 1000-room Dallas Omni Hotel. As she has progressed through each job, Jamethia needed less support and guidance. For her Omni job, she completed the application on her own while asking her Bridges mentor a few questions over the phone.

Jamethia’s is a life transformed through the power of a job, affecting not only this ambitious young lady, but her manager, other associates at the Omni, and countless others who witness the positive change.

And as National Disability Employment Awareness Month draws to a close, it is worth reminding ourselves of the
nearly 400,000 young adults with disabilities exiting special education every year in the U.S. whose abilities can and must be realized through post-secondary education, training and the power of a job. Let’s redouble our efforts throughout the year to promote and support efforts to integrate young adults with disabilities in the competitive workplace.

Inclusion works. It works for the young adult. It works for the employer. It works for us all.

What Makes a Movement

October 24, 2016/in News

Focus on Ability, Not Disabilty

October 20, 2016/in King Jordan, News

Every year in October the country observes National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). Each year NDEAM establishes a theme and this year that is “inclusion works.” The notion that inclusion does work speaks directly to what we do at the Johnson Scholarship Foundation (JSF). Twenty of our grant recipient partners are programs that support various aspects of inclusion for people with disabilities along the entire age spectrum. We know from working with these programs that inclusion works.

Unfortunately, too many people do not yet realize or acknowledge this fact. Too many people have preconceived notions of the limitations that disability presents and not enough awareness of the abilities of those of us who have disabilities.

For me, National Disability Employment Awareness Month is very personal. As a deaf man and as the former president of Gallaudet University, I have been very close to issues related to disability for more than 50 years. About 10 years ago I was invited to join the Board of Directors of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation and my work with disability issues immediately grew by leaps and bounds.

At the Foundation we think of ourselves as investors. In the area of disability, we invest in programs that work directly with individuals to help them transition from one level of education to the next and finally to the world of work. We have learned two very significant things doing this.

First, and this is where disability is highly personal to me, we have learned that the most difficult barrier people with disabilities face is not a physical one, but is the barrier of
negative attitudes. Ignorance is a frequently misused or overused word, but related to disability, it is true that by and large most people are ignorant. Most people, when they think about individuals with disabilities, think first about what those people cannot do. By doing this, they actually create a barrier which makes it more difficult for people with disabilities to achieve. When we can focus instead on what people with disabilities can do instead of what they cannot do, it becomes much easier for them to achieve.

The second thing we have learned relates directly to the first. Over time and after significant investment in scholarships for people with disabilities we now know that while those scholarships are very important in helping people with disabilities access higher education, as important or maybe even more important is what we have called elsewhere a “secret sauce.” Let me describe briefly one of the Foundation’s core programs and the importance of secret sauce.

Since the Foundation began, we have provided over 4,250 scholarships to nearly 2,500 students with disabilities at all 12 of the universities in the State University System of Florida. This totals to more than $9 million of JSF funds granted to these students over the past 25 years. Many of the students who receive scholarship support say that without it they would not have been able to attend university. Along with the scholarship dollars that they receive, however, is a different and maybe more important support. They receive the personal support and attention of the staff people who work in the offices of disability support services. This support is what we have called the secret sauce, but it’s a very simple concept.

The staff people who work in the disability services offices “get it.” When they see a student who has a disability they focus immediately on what that student can do. Instead of presenting an attitudinal barrier, their positive attitudes help students succeed. They help them succeed in class and in life. They help them persist in their education from year to year and they help them transition to the world of work.

This is why this is so personal to me. For most of my life I have had to deal with negative attitudes related to my deafness. Since joining JSF, I’ve been privileged to help address and change those attitudes for many hundreds of young people. We at the Foundation have seen so many successful transitions to work, but what has given me most personal satisfaction has been the overall growth in the recognition of the abilities of people with disabilities.

I encourage you to take the time during this month to reflect on your own personal perception of disability. Last week’s blog focused on the fact that we have a long way to go. We definitely do. And change can start with you.