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“It was really cool knowing that something you can make physically with your hands is used to help someone in need, and they can have a new life with this device you just made,” Addison says. Her desire to help others continues to blossom, as she plans to attend medical school after earning her undergraduate degree to become a neurologist. When she was younger, Addison’s father passed away from a brain tumor. She hopes to pair her biomedical engineering background with her neurology studies to develop a minimally invasive way to remove brain tumors. “I think one thing that came out of my dad passing away is that he definitely motivated me throughout high school and college to do everything in his memory. I thought about him while applying for this scholarship; I think about him while taking my classes,” Addison says. “I just want to be a neurologist and help kids and families in the way my dad’s neurologist helped us.”
A Different Perspective: Bryce Williams
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his parents created to try making his treatment fun and the countless movies he watched to distract himself. Today, Bryce’s reliance on movies has transcended into a passion and his studies. Bryce is earning a bachelor’s degree in global film art from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Bryce studies at Emerson in the summer and studies in Paris during the school year. As he transitions from his sophomore year to junior year, Bryce is motivated by a desire to make movies that obscure traditional points of view. “I’m interested in fringe societies … I really like pushing the normal away from western-centric perspectives of what the body is supposed to look like,” Bryce says. “It’s a time to oversaturate the world with as many perspectives as possible.” As an amputee, Bryce explains that this scholarship will help him continue to develop his craft while studying in an old city that wasn’t built for people with disabilities. “I know it’s a small population, but the point is that the population still matters,” Bryce explains. “This helps me do it, so I can exist there, and I can show people in Paris that there is a way to thrive while being disabled.” Congratulations to our 2020 Flora Marie Jenkins Memorial Disability Scholarship winners! We know you’ll make us proud. -Marc Whitehead
Just two days before Christmas 2008, Bryce Williams was diagnosed with osteosarcoma bone cancer in his left leg. After a year of 99 chemotherapy appointments and a leg amputation, Bryce’s cancer went into remission, where it continues to be to this day. Bryce doesn’t remember much about this time other than the games
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