The Keegan Wahler Scholarship annually gives a minimum of $500 to students at Amador Valley High School, Foothill High School, and Village High School in Pleasanton, California.
This scholarship will be given to students that have overcome the odds in some way, or dealt with a hardship during school, but continued to fight their way through anyway.
We understand that so-called disabilities do not actually mean that one lacks the ability to perform a task, and sometimes can even become a source of strength when one accepts it, and given a fair chance.
It is generally the case that the only people prepared when difficult situations present themselves are those who have met the adversity of things like emotional whirlwinds who play the most significant role in shaping a society.
It is often the case that a look at the personal life of an extrordinary leader, such as Abraham Lincoln, will reveal countless emotional 'hurricanes' that actually served to teach him how to gather the support the men in his armies as they found themselves fighting against their own flesh and blood.
In his case, there were numerous family problems, unusual physical 'deformities', etc.
The observation that people can be outcasts, get labeled as 'dumb' by an academic institution simply because a preference of a learn in unconventional ways for either social or financial reasons is an exposure of flaws within in the system by which a person's abilities are assessed.
The simple fact that someone appears emotionally disturbed, illiterate, disorganized, wierd, etc does not actually have anything to do with their ability to accomplish tasks that are conventionally associated with those abilities.
It is also true that when a disability or hardship is present, it may not be apparent. As the case is with non-apparent disabilities, it is all too common that the symptoms of it actually are apparent and being misinterpreted as an unrelated issue.
One example would be the assumption that a child whom does not appear to be exerting themselves in a P.E. class is simply not putting in the effort when in reality there is a breathing problem hindering activities that cannot be corrected by 'trying harder'.
The members of this scholarship organization thus work to avoid looking at the labels such as 'disability', that serve only to tell us how a person doesn't do something, and aim more at seeing how a person does do something.
It is our beleif had that anyone who looked at cases such as that of Einstein in this way would not have seen his tendency to seem unable to follow instruction, and defy academic norms as arrogance, but instead as an ability to think outside the box.
If you are a high school senior living in Pleasanton, California please check back with us in February to apply for a scholarship.
