Education

Congrats to the Winners of the Ruckes and Carsel Scholarships!

Guest Bloggers, Les Harbour and Tara Annis, AFB TECH

Hello, this is Les Harbour (an accounting intern at AFB TECH) and Tara Annis (information specialist at AFB TECH). We were thrilled to have been asked to blog about our experience reading over and helping to rank the Ruckes and Carsel scholarship applications. Carsel provides one scholarship of $500 to a full-time graduate student who presents evidence of economic need while Ruckes provides one scholarship of $1,000 to a full-time undergraduate or graduate student in the field of engineering or in computer, physical, or life sciences.

We enjoyed reading these extraordinary stories about the applicants' lives . These people truly inspire and show that even the greatest obstacles can be overcome. While all of the submissions were worthy of receiving the scholarships, we had to narrow it down to just one winner per scholarship. One major factor that we had to consider was that the selection process would be very subjective, so to try and lessen the subjectivity, we developed a system to rate the applications on a scale based on three criteria in addition to the criteria already set down by the scholarship (financial need for Carsel and majoring in sciences for Ruckes). The three criteria are as follows: references, essays, and GPA.

We're happy to announce that the winners are Casey Burkhardt (Ruckes scholarship) and Barry Hyde (Carsel scholarship).

Casey had an extremely compelling essay, due to his academic achievement of earning 27 credit hours of college coursework while still in high school. During college, he was treasurer of the Computing Machinery Association, Chair of the New Jersey Association of Blind Students, and a member of the Villanova International Collegiate Programming Competition Team. We were also impressed with his employment history, including serving as webmaster of his university's school newspaper, assistant systems administrator and web developer, and most impressive, his out-of-state internship with Google. Both of us wholeheartedly recommended him, due to his work ethic and creativity.

Barry Hyde also had a great essay, due to his past academic achievement of earning a perfect 4.0 GPA for his Master's degree. He is a sought-after public speaker, and since he has given speeches for the Air Traffic Control Association, Greater Miami Aviation Association, American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, and Women in Aviation, International, we think he will be famous someday. Most compelling is the fact that he was able to make a comeback after being severely injured in a plane crash. Many people in his situation would have taken the easy way out becoming bitter at the world and never returning to life before the accident. His two references confirmed our thoughts: both persons attested to the fact that Barry Hyde has an outstanding character, is extremely motivated, will overcome any challenge presented to him, and will make a positive contribution to aviation safety and/or commercial aviation.

We would like to give our thanks to all of the participants who turned in submissions and congratulate Mr. Hyde and Mr. Burkhardt. We wish all of you the best of luck in the future and have confidence you will continue to succeed no matter the situation.

Summer Fragrance Workshop in France for Visually Impaired Teens

AFB and French beauty company L'Occitane are teaming up again to send four visually impaired teenagers to L'Occitane's perfume school, Provence dans tous les sens (Provence in every sense). The program is a magical experience that gives students the opportunity to visit lavender fields, learn how soaps, perfumes, and other products are made, and practice their Bonjours, Mercis, and S'il Vous Plaîts. If you know any 14-, 15-, or 16-year-olds interested in fragrance design, please encourage them to apply! Applications must be submitted by April 21. For more information, visit the 2008 announcement.

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Visually Impaired Teens Learn about Fragrance Design from L'Occitane

From Adrianna Montague-Gray, Communications Manager

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had the joy of escorting five spunky teenagers to the south of France to attend a fragrance design school funded and run by French beauty company, L'Occitane. L'Occitane's founder, Olivier Baussan, established the program for visually impaired teens because he wanted to help young people focus on using the skills they had, not the ones they lacked. AFB and L'Occitane took the first group of American students to France in 2000, and have since taken three more groups of teens.

This year's lucky students—selected through a competitive applications process run by AFB and L'Occitane—included Katie Lawson, Stephanie O'Donnell, Nicole Ann White, Emma Liu, and Michelle Hackman. The five girls spent four days this June learning about scents and aromatic plants, and developing their own sachets and hand soaps. The girls loved the instructors and curriculum, and thought the experience was "super!" Most importantly, they made great friends, learned a little French, and left knowing a lot about the scents, flavors, and beauty of Provence.

Here is a news story from the Washington Post, and one from the Eagle-Tribune, covering the program. And as you can see from the photos I've included below, everyone had a great time! Thank you to L'Occitane for continuing to support this wonderful program.

Maryland Legislation Should Improve Access to Textbooks

I was really happy to read an article last week that Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed legislation that should improve access to textbooks for blind college and graduate students in Maryland. Kudos to the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland for leading this effort to foster production of textbooks in an electronic format. Ultimately, we hope that this effort will allow students who are visually impaired to download their textbooks to computers or braille devices. Not only does this show how technology is expanding possibilities for those with vision loss, but also it is a momentous day for blind students statewide. We applaud the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland and the State of Maryland for working together to get this piece of legislation signed. This is the next step in building on the work that created the National Instructional Material Accessibility Standard for textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools.

Back-to-school with new IDEA regulations

Right in time for back-to-school, we have some exciting news on the education front. Later today the Department of Education is expected to release the latest amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA guarantees children with disabilities access to a free, appropriate public education, and related services, such as instruction in braille, orientation and mobility instruction, and textbooks and other materials in accessible formats.

We have been eagerly anticipating the release of these regulations and congratulate the Department of Education for getting them out before the start of the 2006-2007 school year.

We hope the regulations will bolster the specialized services children with vision loss need to get ahead. Most importantly, we hope this means students with vision loss will get their textbooks on time and have access to available, high quality teachers.

We'll keep you posted on what they say. I can't wait to read the new regulations!