Alumni

This article appeared in USA Today yesterday, November 17. It features our graduate Erin Daley, of whom we are naturally quite proud. In the article, Erin mentions that she loves to travel and will be visiting the Baltic countries. Well, she’s on her way right now!

If you’re a sighted person, you likely have misconceptions about blind people. Time to educate yourselves.

Check out this story on usatoday.com

They love Chaz Davis in his hometown of Grafton, Mass. But we are just as proud of him here in Littleton, Colo. at the Colorado Center for the Blind!

Chaz, a 2016 Paralympian in Rio and a 2017 graduate of CCB, won the Boston Marathon’s visually impaired division on October 11. It was the 125th Boston Marathon, but the first year that this division was available for blind runners to register in. Previous blind marathoners in Boston just … well, ran.

Blind runners run with a guide to whom they are tethered, meaning that the guide and blind runner must be carefully matched as far as speed and endurance, and marathon runners may change guides during a race.

Let there be no doubt – students at the Colorado Center for the Blind form lifelong friendships. Monday, three such friends reunited at the center Kathy Kudlick, Bill Lundgren and Anahit LaBarre. They are shown above standing in front of our tactile CCB logo, left to right, Anahit, Kathy, Bill and Director Julie Deden.

All three were students at the same time, in fact, they began arriving shortly after our move to Littleton in August, 2000.

Kathy was first in October of that year. A professor of French History at the University of California-Davis at the time, she came ready to at last embrace her identity as a blind person. Today, she is Director of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University.

Cathy Kudlick, Julie Deden and Anahit LaBarre reunited for dinner last Thursday. Cathy and Anahit, who works in our Senior Services Dept., were students together in 2000 to 2001.

It has been nearly 18 years since Catherine Kudlick first arrived in Littleton as a student at CCB, but the lessons of her training have endured, as she told staff and students in Philosophy Class last Thursday.

Cathy’s blindness is due to Nystagmus and she had never used a cane before she came for training. Still, she counted her travel training as one of the most important classes for her. She told students in frank terms about her internal struggles in that class under sleepshades.

(Editor’s Note: This press release was forwarded to us by the Community College of Aurora, and it is certainly worthy to be shared with all. Congratulations to Reem!)

DISABLED STUDENT RISES TO THE CHALLENGE TO GRADUATE

Reem Hamodi Graduates with 4.0 GPA

May 9, 2016 – Aurora, CO – When Reem Hamodi arrived in the United States five years ago from Iraq, she wasn’t sure what to expect.

She felt isolated because her English wasn’t perfect and communicating with others was a challenge, especially because Hamodi is also blind. Despite those challenges, Hamodi graduated from the Community College of Aurora on May 7 with an Associate of Arts degree in psychology and with a 4.0 grade point average with the intention of becoming a psychology professor.

Hamodi grew up in Iraq and lived in several countries such as Jordan, Syria, and Libya. “There were no services for blind people in my country,” she said, referring to Iraq.