If you’ve been looking for something to spark the light in your darkness, something to inspire you to become more than what the world around you defines, then you need to meet Haben Girma, the first blind-deaf student to graduate with a law degree from Harvard Law School.
Haben Girma was born deaf-blind but she had access to opportunities afforded by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Girma is Harvard Law School’s first deaf-blind graduate and her academic achievements have catapulted her advocacy career, fighting for the rights of people with disabilities.
Girma’s family moved to the United States, where Haben was born deaf-blind but she had access to opportunities afforded by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Her success has been shared and appreciated by many including her grandmother back in Eritrea. During her introductory remarks at the White House, Girma noted that in Eritrea, “there was simply no chance,” for deaf-blind children to go to school. Her grandmother had difficulties finding a school in Eritrea for Haben’s older brother, also born deaf-blind.
The 27 year-old has achieved a lot despite her disability, “For my grandmother back in Africa, my success in law school seemed like magic,” she says.
Girma appreciates the opportunities she has been offered and “the hard won power of the ADA.”
Here’s a video of Girma at a TEDx event in 2014.
Her academic achievements, a “J.D. in 2013 from Harvard, and her B.A., magna cum laude, in 2010 from Lewis & Clark College” have indeed catapulted her advocacy career which have seen her fighting for the rights of people with disabilities.
If you’re not inspired already, drop your feelings in the comment box below.
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I’m Abidemi Babaolowo Oderinlo
I Write What I Like
