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Panel highlights support from Nina Scholars program for students with disabilities

Panel highlights support from Nina Scholars program for students with disabilities

By: Heaven Xiong

Friday, April 05, 2024

Wide shot of guests in a conference room sitting around desks formatted in a U shape — Faculty, program staff, and students gathered for Nina Scholars panel.

For more than 20 years, the Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars program at IUPUI has supported students with physical disabilities, students who are independent youth, or students with dependents gain access to higher education. At a March 6 panel hosted by Accessible Educational Services as part of the Inaugural Disability Awareness Month, students and alumni shared how the Nina Scholars program has supported their success.

“This year's scholar community championed inclusion with the theme 'everyone,' Charlie Johnson, director of scholar support programs, said. “Our program model is centered on and aspires to a learning paradigm that empowers all students to engage with their capacity to learn, grow, develop, and contribute.”

A sense of community and personal support provided through the Nina Scholars program enrich participants’ academic experiences.

“But what I’ve found is on the days I’m just at home doing this work on my own. The knowing that I’m a part of this and knowing I’m a part of this community—of this group of scholars. There’s something about that, that helps to keep one going,” Lance Varnell said.

Varnell, a Nina Scholar from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and an IUPUI Top 100 student, has been blind for eight years. He was a speaker for the event’s panel, which consisted of current students and alumni from the program.

Lance Varnell (left) and Matt Griffin (right) share their experiences with attending guests

Charlie Johnson

Johnson highlighted the program’s high graduation rates and its students’ social responsibility and civic engagement.

“Our alums are very community-involved folks, often leaders in the community,” Johnson said.

Shadiyah Jones and Matt Griffin, who were also panelists during the event, detailed their experience as both Nina Scholar graduates and individuals with disabilities. They noted their enthusiasm for the month of events coordinated by Accessible Educational Services.

“It’s very fulfilling and meaningful for me, and I feel like the disability awareness month is very important due to the fact that we can bring awareness to disabilities and also allowing people to see us as regular people,” Jones said. “Although we have a disability, we still want to do regular things and live our lives like regular people.”

Jones, who became paralyzed at 16, felt alone when she was in high school. As a Nina Scholar alumnus, Jones wishes that her younger self would have known that the future held confidence and a strong group of people who would understand and support her.

Shadiyah Jones speaks to the audience via Zoom about her time as a Nina Scholar

Jones described her biggest barrier as a lack of self-belief and attributed Johnson’s encouragement for her to pursue a full time courseload as the most influential factor that helped her reach graduation.

“And I’m like ‘no I don’t think I can do that, no, I’m okay’ and he was like, ‘I think you can do full time,’” Jones said.

Griffin commended the program for also actively pushing its students to become a part of a community that aids in developing self-awareness skills.

“Really a lot of the programs that Nina exposed me to was just more culture, understanding, and reflecting on people’s differences—what makes them have stronger abilities and some areas where I was weaker and really driving that community,” Griffin said.

Regarding student outcomes in the program, Griffin emphasized how the program inspires students to develop a more profound self-view of themselves.

“But really what it ultimately does, being involved in the program, it helps you take yourself out of that mental box—make sure you’re not confining yourself to what you think you are,” Griffin said.

Applications for the Nina Scholars program can be accessed through the IU Scholarships portal on One.IU.

For more information, contact the Division of Undergraduate Education Office of Communications at duecomm@iu.edu.

Panel highlights support from Nina Scholars program for students with disabilities

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