2006 Students of Parents with Disabilities Scholarship Winners Announced

*(Please note: TLG's Scholarship Program ended December 2006)

The National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities at Through the Looking Glass announces the winners of its 2006 College Scholarships for Students of Parents with Disabilities. These scholarships are funded through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education. Each award is a $1,000 college scholarship for an outstanding high school senior who has at least one parent with a disability.

There were nearly 400 applicants throughout the U.S. for the 2006 awards. Eligible students must have been a high school graduate (or graduating senior) by Summer 2006 and have at least one parent with a disability. 2006 applicants included those with parents who were quadriplegic, blind, deaf, paraplegic as well as parents with spinal cord injury, cancer, multiple sclerosis, polio, diabetes, mental illness, head injury, rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy or intellectual disability.

Scholarship reviewers included parents with disabilities, adult children of parents with disabilities, advocates and professionals. Selection criteria included academic performance, community activities and service, letters of recommendation and an essay describing the experience of growing up with a parent with a disability.

The winning essays describe routine, remarkable, and sometimes difficult stories of parents with disabilities and their children. Individual stories are dramatic, candid, humorous, loving, provocative, and moving.

To read one of the essays, please click on the student's name. The ten scholarship winners are:

Rebecca Beaulieu (Lawrence, KS) Chanelle Boucher (Redmond, WA) Lamont Cobb (Los Angeles, CA) Michele Hinton (Baltimore, MD) Shira Jacobs (Suffern, NY) Clare Kaufman (Brookfield, WI) Holley Kohler (Empire, MI) Abel Lawal (Glendale, CA) Tommy Tobin (Myrtle Beach, SC) Kaitlyn Woodward (Yardley, PA)

Congratulations to these deserving students and their families. Thank you to all the students, teachers, counselors and parents who took the time to participate in this process. For an additional article discussing some of the broader issues raised in these and other essays submitted for these scholarships, please click here.

Ultimately, it's unfair to compare one person or one family's experience with another. To be sure, there were far more deserving scholarship applicants than we had funds to award. There were also many additional essays that were equally compelling, insightful and heartfelt and we hope to include additional essays in future publications as well.

We encourage you to consider how you can contribute to other deserving students who have a parent with a disability as well as increase the resources available to their families:

• Contribute to TLG's scholarship fund.



• Become involved in our national network of parents with disabilities.



• Complete our survey of resources for parents with disabilities in your community.



• Encourage local organizations to sponsor a scholarship for a student of a parent with a disability.

2005 Scholarship Winners

Information on Additional Scholarship Resources

Please note that all materials including these essays are copyrighted by Through the Looking Glass. If you need additional information on re-printing or using any of these materials, please contact us.