Winter 2006-07

Multiplying x Success

From the Valley to Lebanon and India, students discover EMU's individualized support.

Foreground to back, Linda Gnagey, Cara Atkins, Sanjay Pulipaka, Joyce Hedrick

Sometimes it takes a message from afar to make you appreciate something right at home. This may explain why Crossroads never ran an article on EMU's academic support center... until an item appeared this summer in The Hindu, "India's national newspaper," praising the success of the center, directed by Linda Gnagey.

The article was written by Sanjay Pulipaka, who is a Fulbright student from India enrolled in the masters program of EMU's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

Pulipaka decried the lack of social equality for the "backward castes" in his home country and pointed out that measures can be taken to make education accessible to all.

As his main positive example, he cited the academic support center at EMU. "Many students with diverse backgrounds come to the university to pursue their degrees," he wrote. "Given their diverse backgrounds, there is disparity in the communication skills of the students.

"Instead of indulging in deprecatory humorous statements about the alleged low standards of incoming students, the university runs an academic support center where the students are provided with various services such as proofreading and editing of their term papers."

Pulipaka praised the "healthy relationships" between the students receiving help and the professionals giving it. Under such conditions, the students "register a remarkable improvement."

He liked EMU's "acknowledging the fact that there are multiple intelligences" by offering students "an option to submit their assignments by using various methods, such as role-plays and other audio-visual mediums."

"All these measures are based on the premise that given an appropriate space every student has a distinct possibility of becoming a 'meritorious student,'" said Pulipaka.

Finally, he commended EMU's assistance in finding and securing jobs, including help with preparing resumes. (This occurs through the director of career services, Helen Nafziger, MA '00.)

Asked Pulipaka: "How many universities in India can claim that they are running academic support centers that foster 'excellence' among all students?"

Enabling Brain-Injured Student to Succeed

Two years ago, the academic support center received some local newspaper attention for playing a role in the near-miraculous recovery of Cara Atkins, a woman in her late 20s whose car and body had been crushed by a drunk driver.

Airlifted to a university trauma center in 1997, Atkins spent 2 weeks in a coma and another 10 weeks as an inpatient before she could return to her family's turkey farm.

After getting home, Atkins sought to earn a college degree. She arrived at EMU unable to walk, track with her eyes, retain information in her short-term memory (including how to get from one building to another and back), speak in anything but a monotone, and use her fine motor skills as is needed for handwriting.

Marcia Brown, then employed at the academic support center, became Atkins' advocate and counselor. Brown found a way for Atkins to recover her strength between classes by napping in a quiet area.

Classes were adjusted to Atkins' developmental abilities, with a different set of requirements. Some of them became pass/fail classes. It was understood that her degree would not be completed in four years.

Social work professor Elroy J. Miller '75 was one of a half-dozen teachers who spent hours outside of class time working one-on-one with Atkins, with some teachers coming to her home.

Students were assigned to guide Atkins around the campus. They also ate with her and gave her emotional support. "I saw God in their lives every day," said Atkins. One of them, Jeanine Herbison Wilson '02, remains her closest friend.

Disabilities coordinator Joyce Hedrick arranged for Atkins to use books on tape to reduce the amount of reading she needed to do with her damaged eyes.

Five years after she entered EMU, Atkins walked unassisted across the stage to graduate with the class of 2004. She was the first braininjured student to graduate from EMU, doing so with a 3. 3 grade average for her social work major.

"If it had been any other college than EMU, I would not have survived," Atkins said at the time. "Everyone was so helpful, so considerate, and accepting."

Read more of this story in From Coma to College - The Reconstruction of Cara Atkins by James G. T. Fairfield '64, MA '83.

Discovering New Ways for Blind Student

Fadi El Hajjar

Fadi El Hajjar, who finished his masters degree in conflict transformation last spring, smiles at the memory of his arrival to EMU from his home country of Lebanon in August, 2004.

He was picked up by an EMU driver at Dulles Airport, who did not know that Hajjar was blind before locating him. On his application to EMU, Hajjar had noted that he was "visually challenged," thinking that he was using the appropriate American expression for not being able to see at all.

When he was brought to his apartment, he spoke on the phone with Heidi Lantz-Trissel '00, who then worked for the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

"She tried to tell me a phone number containing 10 digits," he said. "It was difficult for me to memorize quickly - I was used to six digits."

Lantz-Trissel said the number was written on a piece of paper on the table.

"It's on the table?" he said. "I'm supposed to read it?"

"Yes," she replied. "It is there with the door key."

"I'm blind."

"Oh... really?"

That was on a Friday. By the next day, a fellow student had picked up Hajjar and taken him out to eat, followed by grocery shopping.

On Monday, Joyce Hedrick of the academic support center met Hajjar to determine what she needed to do in terms of assisting him with mobility, reading printed material, using a computer for e-mails, research and paper-writing, keeping his residence clean, and much more.

"I was surprised that he had never used a white cane to walk around," said Hedrick. "He was going to be crossing busy streets around EMU. I convinced him that a cane and training on how to use it were essential."

She also felt he needed to be taught the basics on how to cook for himself.

The center didn't have a "screen reader" for its computer, which enables a blind person to listen to an electronic voice decoding text on the screen, but it soon acquired such a reader.

Even with the help of electronic readers, books on tape, and fellow students, Hajjar had to depend heavily on his memory of what was said in class. He would dictate his papers to a student assistant to type into a presentable format.

Six weeks after his arrival, Hajjar was mostly getting around on his own, depending on his mental map of the campus, his white cane, and sometimes on people heading his way. He was even cooking for himself from time to time, supplementing the meals he ate in the cafeteria.

Hajjar, who was on a Fulbright scholarship at EMU, is now back in Lebanon where his computer is loaded with software he began using at EMU that speaks to him. And his cane is never far from his hands.

More on the web:
Academic support center:
http://www.emu.edu/academicsupport

Sanjay Pulipaka’s article in The Hindu: http://www.hindu.com/op/2006/08/13/stories/2006081300021400.htm

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