Some people with disabilities or challenges focus on how much harder their lives are because of the odds they were dealt. Others spend their time figuring out ways to live their lives to the fullest despite those challenges.
Twenty-three-year-old Elisa Cabrera belongs to the latter group.
She didn’t let dyslexia — a learning disability that affects reading — stand in her way. Instead, she figured out how to succeed in spite of the obstacle.
On Saturday, her determination paid off as she graduated from Centenary College in Hackettstown at the top of the 247 students who earned degrees for the 138th January commencement. Cabrera, a Middlesex County, N.J., native, earned her bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and several education certificates.
During her speech, she reminded classmates that everyone faces their own issues and it’s important to acknowledge each and every victory before moving on to the next challenge.
She says she’s not naturally intelligent — just smart enough to know that hard work, dedication and motivation pay off.
Dyslexia is used to describe a broad range of language-based learning disabilities affecting reading fluency or comprehension in people who otherwise possess the intelligence and motivation considered necessary for accurate and fluent reading. In Cabrera’s case, it was identified in the third grade and involves word processing. She says it takes her a little longer than the typical student to comprehend what she reads.
“I just learned to work with it,” she explained.
She’s not alone. According to headstrongnation.org, one in seven Americans has some form of dyslexia and it accounts for 80 percent of people diagnosed as learning disabled.
Some people with dyslexia, especially those without the proper support from home and school, give up on school and other life challenges.
The dropout rate for students with learning disabilities is 35 percent — three times the national average, according to headstrongnation.org. And less than 2 percent of people with learning disabilities get four-year college degrees.
In addition, more than 30 percent of welfare recipients and more than 40 percent of prisoners are believed to be learning disabled, according to headstrongnation.org.
Given those numbers, Cabrera’s success is something not only for her and her family to celebrate, but the entire community to celebrate.
She completed her student teaching at Blairstown Elementary School, where she taught fifth-grade math and history and taught all subjects to special education students. She told The Express-Times’ Tommy Rowan that she prefers working with special education students because she understands their frustrations and can offer them the patience they need.
Those students are fortunate to have someone such as Cabrera in their lives.
Because not everyone does. Some children with dyslexia are never properly diagnosed. Some are written off as stupid, lazy or unmotivated. Some never learn to read. Some end up quitting school. And dyslexia isn’t something that children outgrow. Dyslexic children become dyslexic adults.
That’s why it’s critical to provide children with dyslexia the tools and training they need to make it in this world.
Because they can. Cabrera is proof of that.