Hey everyone, so the other day during my education class, we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about her experiences as a paraplegic. Her name was Christine and she had actually graduated from the concurrent education program here at Brock just last year and was now doing her masters.
She started out by discussing her life here at Brock and the different sports she liked to do before she became paraplegic. She then told us about how she ended up in a motocross accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down during her fourth year. It was amazing to see how comfortable she was in sharing her story with a bunch of second year students and how strong she is a person.
She also talked about how she still plays a lot of sports and how she even went out to Vancouver and Whistler not too long ago to take part in an adrenaline tourism program for people with disabilities called 9Lives Adventures where she got to go snowmobiling, rowing and even bungee jumping! She told us that she had sent in a video to the program, and she won so she got to go out to BC to take part in it. She also showed us a video of her bungee jumping, while still in her wheelchair!! Check out the video here.
One of the most important things that Christine talked about, was her experience as a teacher with a disability. She said that there aren’t many teachers out there with physical disabilities, so she had to learn to adjust and adapt things in the classroom in order to make it as normal as possible for both her and the students. It was so great to see how open Christine was with everyone and how she was willing to answer any questions that people had about her and her experiences as both a student and now a teacher with a disability.
This was definitely my favourite education lecture this semester, and I love how the university brings in a lot of inspiring speakers like Christine to come in and talk with the students and share their stories with us.
