Students

To all my NFB family and Friends,

We are pleased to launch this year’s 2023-2024 NFB of Virginia Scholarship program. The scholarship committee would love to request your help in distributing the information below to everyone you know who is attending a college or university this upcoming year. Your participation and help are appreciated and are a huge part of our success. Please see all the details below. Thanks again for your help and support in making this a fantastic opportunity for our blind students across Virginia.

Hello everyone,

By John Bailey

“Would you go to a blind doctor?", was the first of many challenging questions asked by Trisha Kurkarni At the February leadership seminar cohosted by the National Association of Blind Students in Falls Church, Virginia.

Too many young people wind up in jobs they hate because they followed someone else's advice about how to use their talents. You would think that after a certain age we would be capable of making major choices independent of the influence of family, friends, or career guides, but too often we allow someone else's well-intentioned promptings to steer us in directions we would never have chosen for ourselves.

By Lizzy Schoen

Resilience, Independence, Self-Advocacy, Employment: that is what the RISE in Project RISE stands for. Going into the program, I had low expectations; everything I had done so far had not prepared me for what I got. The power of Project RISE is not in the curriculum, though it is extremely beneficial, it is in the people who you meet and the lives the mentors are willing to share with you and teach you to attain.

From a young age, a blind person is taught two universal truths that, though probably not said out loud, are said by actions:

By Sarah Patnaude

The sun was shining; the breeze was blowing. I could hear the crashing of waves in the distance. It was a normal week spent at my childhood vacation spot: Nags Head, North Carolina. Except it wasn’t. Unlike most thirteen year olds, I couldn’t be found bogey boarding or swimming. I wasn’t playing basketball or even relaxing inside. Instead, I made the porch my fortress for the week. You see, the back porch was my practice stage.

By Kathryn Webster

Editor’s Note: During the last weekend in January 2019, Kathryn organized a joint conference for Project RISE participants and leaders from the National Association of Blind Students. On Saturday evening, the two groups came together for a banquet and keynote speech that merged the goals of both tracks in one inspirational presentation. Following is the text of Kathryn’s remarks.

The following appeared in the December 2017 issue of The Vigilant, our former newsletter:

The Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL) Academies in Virginia were a tremendous success. This year, we produced an outstanding video to introduce parents, students, sponsors and volunteers to the program and we wanted to share this great video with you. We look forward to introducing more students to BELL academies in 2018. Please help do your part to help spread word of this wonderfully enriching opportunity.