by Daveed Mandell and Charlie Doris
[Editor’s Note: The article “Angela and Alice” by Charlie Doris appeared in the 2012 spring BC. We thought it was high time for an update.]
In 2005 the San Francisco Chapter of CCB started a community outreach program that has evolved into today's Student Education Access Grant Program (SEA
Grant). Since 2005 the chapter has awarded grants totaling $25,500 to 12 legally-blind students in the Bay Area. The grants have been used to purchase
computers, software and accessible technology. In addition, this program has become the primary focus for the chapter's fundraising efforts and an important
source of chapter energy.
The Grant's Purpose
The grant supports CCB's mission to increase the independence, security, equality of opportunity and the quality of life for all Californians who are blind
or have low vision. Today
the SEA Grant program awards $2,500 to a legally blind Bay Area student, age 8-18, who can best demonstrate the need for accessible equipment to enhance
their educational opportunities.
Higher education is critical to all students today, but it is indispensable for blind and visually impaired students. Also technology is being used in
earlier and earlier grades, and
students who lack access to such technology run the risk of falling behind, never catching up, and not reaching college. The SEA Grant focuses on grammar
and high school students because it is a critical period for them, and financial aid for technology is more limited than for older students. Recent grant
recipients exemplify this purpose.
Recent Grant Recipients
The 2015 recipient was Destiny Snell, age 17, then a junior at Analy High School in Sebastopol. In 2013 Destiny lost most of her vision, due to a brain
tumor that is now benign after two operations and numerous radiation treatments. But that hasn't stopped her from earning a 4.0 grade point average and
holding down two jobs at CVS and a family service agency. She is also learning braille.
Destiny asked for a MacBook Pro. She says, "It is my goal to graduate from college and hopefully continue on in school or work as an Assistive Technology
Specialist. It is my intention to help others who need help accessing technology, whether they are visually impaired or have other disabilities."
Destiny's initiative is amazing. With other students in her area she is organizing a blindness and vision impairment awareness day to be held early next
year in Sonoma County.
Not only is Destiny intelligent, ambitious, determined, motivated, and eloquent, she has faced adversities that have caused her to become mature beyond
her 17 years.
Equally impressive was the 2014 recipient Ethan Fung, then age 12 and a sixthgrade student at Lawton Middle School in San Francisco. His vision started
deteriorating at an early age due to cone and rod dystrophy, and he started learning braille in the third grade. Since then, he has been in the Braille
Challenge several times, coming in first, second, or third place. According to Ethan, "Braille is very useful, but technology can lead me towards greater
independence," and so, he used the grant to purchase a refreshable braille display.
Ethan likes technology, but he also likes helping people. Two years ago, he oriented two legally blind students to the school building on their first day
of school because he remembered how difficult it had been for him on his own first day. Also, he recorded a book for a legally blind student who had not
yet learned braille.
Ethan combines poise, intelligence and confidence with caring.
The Way It Gets Done
Within the SF Chapter, a seven-person standing committee recommends for chapter approval program guidelines such as geographic territory and the age of
applicants. The committee is then responsible for updating application material, soliciting applications, reviewing the applications, choosing the finalists
to be personally interviewed, selecting the grant
recipient, and purchasing the technology requested. The chapter allows the committee to make the final grant-recipient decision without ratification by
the chapter, which reinforces the
committee's sense of responsibility for all aspects of the program.
There is about a threemonth period when applications can be submitted. To publicize the grant, committee members are responsible for contacting people
such as teachers of the visually impaired and organizations that serve young people who are visually impaired. These contacts are in the current eight
counties in the Bay Area eligible for the grant: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma and San Benito.
The SEA Grant Committee is very much a working group. After the application deadline, there is a twomonth period for reviewing applications, interviewing
finalists, and selecting the
grant recipient. For all its work, the committee's payoff comes when the finalists are interviewed. Each has his or her own remarkable story of dealing
with adversity, which sometimes involves more than their sight impairment. Listening to them is inspiring and humbling; thus several years ago, the committee
discontinued the term "winner" and replaced it with "grant recipient." The applicants are too good and the choice of the recipient too difficult to say
that only one of them is a winner.
Committee members then work with the grant recipient and their family to purchase the technology, sometimes using a third-party adaptive technology consultant.
In this way, the recipient gets what they want and need, usually at a favorable price, and the technology is ready to be used when it's delivered. When
other applicants are notified of the outcome,
they are also told of other sources of money for their technology needs.
Involving the Whole Chapter
The committee informs the chapter of the grant recipient at the chapter meeting immediately following the decision. There is then an award ceremony that
lets the chapter meet the recipient and vice versa. In this way, the result of the program is not abstract, but very personal, which spurs the chapter
forward into the next year.
This ceremony also validates the fundraising efforts of the chapter, which includes virtually all members. Currently, all money for the grant is raised
through fundraisers such as a raffle, a pizzabingo lunch, and the sale of merchandise at CCB conventions and other events. This is not easy.
The SEA Grant's Future
The San Francisco Chapter's grant program will begin its 12th year in January, 2016, accepting applications from legally blind students aged 8 to 18, living
in the eight counties listed above.
The chapter knows it will find another group of remarkable applicants, and while only one will be the award recipient, the chapter is proud to make that
contribution to our community.
