{"id":437,"date":"2012-02-13T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/?p=437"},"modified":"2012-02-22T21:44:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T21:44:36","slug":"advocating-for-disabled-youth-melissa-lomaxs-work-since-her-participation-in-ohis-youth-ability-summit-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/advocating-for-disabled-youth-melissa-lomaxs-work-since-her-participation-in-ohis-youth-ability-summit-in-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocating for Disabled Youth: Melissa Lomax’s work since her participation in our Youth Ability Summit in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following entry is a guest post by Melissa Lomax, a participant from our <\/em>Youth Ability Summit<\/a>. This is part of the “Where Are They Now?<\/a>” series. Here is what she had to say about her experience in Syria:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Melissa Lomax (fourth in from left) and Youth Ability Summit group (Syria, August 2010)<\/h6>\n

As a child, I dreamed about helping disabled people, and as an adolescent, I began living out that dream.\u00a0 I am blind, and my hopes are to work with young, blind adults, to motivate and teach them.\u00a0 I am an active member of the National Federation of the Blind, meeting blind teens frequently.\u00a0 I used to assist with tutoring and independence training, but I realized that my efforts solely helped a small population located in New Jersey.\u00a0 Traveling to Damascus, Syria allotted me a completely different opportunity.\u00a0 Instead of working with Americans, I was working alongside counterparts varying in disabilities and culture, who in turn taught me a great deal of information.<\/p>\n

In fact, the lessons I learned comprise the bulk of my memories.\u00a0 I recorded several stories shared by my Syrian peers.\u00a0 These were amazing, fun, and beautifully dressed individuals.\u00a0 Some of their accounts told of overbearing families, insufficient schooling, and unclear futures.<\/p>\n

Spending my entire life in America prevented me from ever imagining that entering high school could be prolonged.\u00a0 For the deaf population in Syria, this is the case.\u00a0 With only one deaf high school in Damascus, students have to wait to receive schooling.\u00a0 For them, college could only live in dreams since sign language interpreters are few.\u00a0 I found the stories and conversations with blind Syrians the most impactful.\u00a0 Several girls asked which careers I could pursue with my vision loss; I shared various jobs which astonished them.\u00a0 That was the reality check I needed.\u00a0 Before coming to Syria, I often complained about some of the obstacles in my life.\u00a0 Talking to these girls, however, helped me to realize that my struggles were not that bad.\u00a0 I have options, resources, and even back-up plans.\u00a0 They often do not.<\/p>\n

For the first few months following my trip, I told anyone who would listen about my plans to one day change the lives of the blind population in Syria.\u00a0 However, I have refined this goal since then.\u00a0 The blind in America still have more improvements to fight for and there are more people in need of assistance and encouragement.\u00a0 Therefore, I devote a large portion of my time to assisting in these efforts.\u00a0 I am now the president of the Maryland Association of Blind Students and am a board member for the Maryland affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind.\u00a0 I wish to encourage blind youth to recognize the gifts they could use to help others. That way, we could work collectively to advocate for Americans and encourage others worldwide.<\/p>\n

Outside of advocating, I am a student.\u00a0 I attend the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.\u00a0 As a junior, I consider this time my mid-college crisis.\u00a0 I want to do everything it seems, but I need to find the best thing.\u00a0 My major is English Literature and my minors are Sociology and English Writing.\u00a0 I am a member of the Golden Key International Honors Society and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.<\/p>\n

Presently, I am conducting undergraduate research in the English Honors Society.\u00a0 My free time usually becomes filled with community service, my favorite being editing college admissions and scholarship essays for high school seniors.\u00a0 Graduate school stands undoubtedly in my future, but the precise program still remains unknown.\u00a0 I will either pursue a Master\u2019s in English or Sociology, or I will study to become an orientation and mobility instructor teaching blind people how to properly use a cane.\u00a0 Whichever path I choose, I know that it will have everything to do with helping others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following entry is a guest post by Melissa Lomax, a participant from our Youth Ability Summit. This is part of the “Where Are They Now?” series. Here is what she had to say about her experience in Syria: Melissa Lomax (fourth in from left) and Youth Ability Summit group (Syria, August 2010) As a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[96,42],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria","tag-disability-and-accessibility","tag-where-are-they-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":678,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}