Senior Year Part I

From spending time with Tibetan, Buddhist nuns, a best friend doing a TED Talk to sharing wheelchairs on campus, senior year has been off to a great start!

Beginning in September, I befriended Tibetan nuns from the Keydong Thuk-Che-Cho-Ling Nunnery in Kathmandu, Nepal. These six Buddhist nuns made Trinity their home and created a sand mandala, used for prayer and compassion. At the time, I was doing an independent study researching the relation between Buddhism and human rights and my professor advised that I visit these nuns on a daily basis. I not only loved and appreciated the tedious aspects in making a mandala, but began to know the nuns and their life stories. Head nun, Ani Tendol, taught me Tibetan prayers of compassion (Om Mani Pandme Hum), even gave me prayer beads (currently dangling in my dorm room), and learned Tibetan phrases. These nuns are amazing, so humble, selfless, and taught me the underlining factors that connect all human beings; suffering, happiness and compassion. More importantly, the Keydong Nuns have been the first females, approved by the Dalai Lama, to make a sand mandala which is traditionally created by monks. When their mandala was finished, the nuns traveled to various colleges and I expected to never see them again on campus. I unexpectedly ran into Ani Tendol outside of my dorm building in late December and she spontaneously wanted to see what an American dorm room looked like. Kind of shocked and unprepared, I volunteered to show her my room, I'm obviously not going to turn down a nun. The most memorable aspect on having Ani Tendol in my room was explaining who Audrey Hepburn was (I have a collage of her on one of my walls) and the picture frame of President Clinton. Ani Tendol and the Keydong Nunnery, whether they realized it or not, the Keydong Nuns greatly changed my perspective on the meaning of humanity, the qualities that unite everyone and how to create change.




Love these nuns!



The other project my friends, advisor and I closely worked together on was Trinity's first Disability Rights Week. This whole project began in August 2012 from coordinating different disability events to researching the best disability experts we could bring to campus. So in December it all came together, starting on December 3rd. That Monday, Professor Stein, the Executive Director of Harvard Law Project on Disability spoke to the Trinity Community about disability rights and the Convention on Rights for Persons with Disabilities. His speech was amazing, honestly one of the smartest people I've met.

That Wednesday, December 5th, was A Day in a Wheelchair. I had the idea for students to spend a day in a wheelchair actually in 2011. I tried coordinating the event on my own while training and taking classes, needless to say, 2011 was not the year. Not thinking anything else would come of it, I was taken back when my advisor, back in August, wanted to follow through with putting on the event for the fall semester. My job was to make sure the philosophy and mission of the day was clear to students. I wanted participants to realize that disability should not be a fear factor. The purpose of the event was to raise disability rights and equality. And when December 5th came, I literally woke up at 6 AM, super excited like I was 6 on Christmas Day, ready to meet up with my friend Sean to give out our wheelchairs! All together we had 24 students, two staff members, one dean, one chaplain and one professor participate in our event!

Attempting to film in reverse!

Throughout that day, I borrowed a small camera and followed participants around on campus and later interviewed their perspectives and experiences. Since I've been around cameras before, I thought it wouldn't be so hard to film people, but I was SOOO wrong! It's completely different being filmed than actually filming. It definitely takes talent to drive a scooter, forward or reverse, while filming! There were times when I didn't realize the camera was recording, and I somehow flipped the lens to learning how to use a tripod. I basically just dove into something I had no clue about except the on, off and record button. Over our winter break, my friend Will and I worked on putting a video together comprising all the wheelchair footage and AGAIN I don't know anything about Final Cut Pro! I literally ripped out a piece of paper and just wrote different segments I liked, the layout of the video and just let Will work on editing. I have no previous experience in filming or making any video, and I'm so so happy we pulled something good off for the Trinity Community! Nothing would have been accomplished without the help from Sean and Will for putting on this day.

Check out our video!

We can have protests, enact legislation, and create jobs for people with disabilities, but the human world is a social world. One becomes inducted into society through social acceptance. I believe one constructive way to create social acceptance for people with disabilities is for able-bodied students to spend a day in a wheelchair. As I went around campus filming and interviewing participants’ changing perspectives on disability, I realized the value of opening a broader campus conversation. My goal was not to raise inaccessibility issues, rather for participants to see that they are the same person regardless of sitting in a chair or walking. Disabilities aside, we all share the same human dignity, which should be respected and admired. To move forward, society needs to reshape the culture so that people with disabilities are accepted as fully equal. One powerful way to create this change is to spend a day in a wheelchair.

That entire day was amazing. I loved how many people participated, the support from Trinity to recording the new perspectives and opinions regarding disability. This whole event happened because people believed in one idea and I am so thankful we did this. Our event is catching on and people have noticed our mission. Going forward, I have a feeling this will not be the last time you'll hear about A Day in a Wheelchair. :)

For more information, here's an overview of Disability Rights Week http://www.trincoll.edu/NewsEvents/NewsArticles/pages/HumanRightsWeek2012.aspx
Trinity's blog with our wheelchair video http://commons.trincoll.edu/trinshots/
Trinity's photos from that day http://www.flickr.com/photos/trinitycollege/sets/72157632186954946/



And I am beaming with pride over my best friend, Scout, on doing a TED Talk last month! She's like a sister to me and I couldn't be happier with the themes and life lessons she discussed here. Check it out!

So that's just a quick recap of senior year part 1. I love where things are going right now and am so excited about 2013!

Last semester senior year begins in ONE WEEK! Let the final countdown to May 19th begin!