March is recognized as #Nationalcerebralpalsyawareness month.
The goal of National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month is to push for positive change in education programs, the health care system, and the job market to provide more opportunities to those living with this disability.
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. CP is the most common motor disability and the second-most common disability found in children; Over 700,000 people live with CP.
CP is caused by abnormal development of the brain or damage to the developing brain that affects a child’s ability to control his or her muscles; This can happen before birth, during birth, within a month after birth, or during the first year of a child’s life, while the brain is still developing.
Samantha Regner, a voice respected in the disability community, was born with CP.
Sam Regner serves as the Administrative Assistant for the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business. She joined the team in October, after a career stint advocating for individuals with disabilities at the Alliance of Disability Advocates in Raleigh, NC.
She graduated from the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business in 2017 with a degree in Marketing and talks openly about her experience navigating college with a disability.
Growing up, Sam was taught to advocate for her needs as her parents’ instilled confidence in her ability to do so. There was never a mountain she could not climb, because she was up lifted by the faith of her community.
At Campbell, Sam experienced a similar level of confidence riddled with physical barriers to navigate.
She surrounded herself with like-minded individuals who shared in her woes, took advantage of the resources available on campus, and raised her voice for those who did not feel confident enough to share their own.
Now, five years post-graduation she recounts her hardest battle being life after college.
Sam shared, “After college, I was forced to pull my confidence from within. This was difficult, because it was the first time I did not know my next steps. I had to learn how to navigate networking my self so others would see my skills not my disability.”
“I am thankful for the lessons that season of life taught me, for now I am able to advocate for others in a similar position.”
Sam serves as an accessibility stakeholder committee member for the North Carolina Museum of Art and is on the accessibility advisory committee for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science.
As we prepare our students to enter the working world of business we must instill in them a level of confidence that surpasses the walls of Lundy-Fetterman.
Sam has challenged our faculty and staff to be vigilant of barriers that may hinder students with a disability from reaching the same level of success as their peers, physical or mental.
It is our job to advocate and to teach our student body to do the same.