Bold Blind Beauty On A.I.R.
Bold Blind Beauty On A.I.R.
Empowering Futures: Stories of Resilience & Hope in Education
Episode title and number:
Empowering Futures: Stories of Resilience & Hope in Education 4-#7
Summary of the show:
Teens In Flight, led by Dr. Carol Scholz, empowers high school students with visual impairments through storytelling and real-life success stories. By using segments from Bold Blind Beauty, such as Men in Motion and Women on the Move, Dr. Scholz provides relatable narratives that inspire hope and ambition. One standout example is Gareth Brown, a 10th grader pursuing sound engineering. This initiative fosters community among students and encourages them to envision a future filled with possibilities, demonstrating that they can achieve their dreams despite their disabilities.
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Dr. Carol Scholz Bio
I have been an educator for more than 35 years. My experience encompasses a wide variety of jobs over the years. I earned my BS and MEd at the University of Pittsburgh and started my career as an assistant houseparent at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children. So my heart, family, and education are rooted in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania! I subsequently became a Teacher of the Visually Impaired working in PA, MA, CA, ID, TN, and now Florida, and also an Elementary Teacher in CA and ID followed by Alternate Assessment Coordinator Digital Learning Coordinator at the Idaho State Department of Education. I now work virtually as a TVI in two states ID and FL and have my own LLC En-vision Consulting!
I have a PhD in Educational Leadership and Technology which I did not receive until I was 60! Lifetime learning and a life of service, working to make the world a better place is the key to happiness and the true joy of living. I love to learn about new technologies and work with students with visual impairments! I pray I have a positive impact on everyone, students, families, and professionals God brings into my life! I deeply appreciate the opportunity to be featured by Stephanae McCoy on Bold Blind Beauty and Teens in Flight and join her in promoting understanding and acceptance of people with differing abilities! The world is enriched by people of varying visual abilities! My favorite quote is, "Be the change you want to see in the world" Ghandi My message to all who read this be that change!
Bullet points of key topics & timestamps:
00:00 | Welcome & Introduction
02:02 | Dr. Scholz's Journey into Education
08:42 | The Impact of Storytelling
12:56 | Success Stories from Students
15:36 | Challenges and Solutions in Education
16:56 | Save The Date
18:33 | Assistive Technology in the Classroom
23:11 | Conclusion and Future Aspirations
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Music Credit: "Ambient Uplifting Harmonic Happy" By Panda-x-music https://audiojungle.net/item/ambient-uplifting-harmonic-happy/46309958
Thanks for listening!❤️
[00:00:00] Steph: In today's episode of Bold Blind Beauty On A.I.R. We have a special treat for you sitting in for Sylvia Stinson Perez. We have our amazing guest cohost, YouTuber, motivational speaker, advocate, singer, and Bold Blind Beauty contributor, Gabby Mendonca. Thank you, Gabby, for joining us on the show.
[00:00:23] Gabby: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be a part of this today.
[00:00:27] Steph: Yeah, we can't wait to get into our conversation today because we have a phenomenal guest lined up. So without further ado, joining us as our featured guest is the brilliant Dr. Carol Scholz, who has been using our Men in Motion and Women on the Move segments on Bold Blind Beauty to inspire her high school students. This is what she shared in our recent newsletter survey.
[00:00:53] "I have used your amazing Men in Motion and Women on the Move episodes with all of my high school students. Their lives and mine are forever changed because of these stories full of hope and encouragement through personal testimonies. I use your site every single Friday and I call it Friday. I have my blind 10th grade student keeping a journal about the episodes he watches each week."
[00:01:21] That 10th grade student, Gareth Brown, was our very first featured guest in the Teens in Flight series. Dr. Scholz, the brainchild of Teens in Flight, has been a tremendous advocate for this newest initiative, and we're so honored to sit down with her today. So buckle up listeners, we're about to embark on an empowering journey with Dr. Carol Scholz. Let's get started. Dr. Scholz, thank you for being here today.
[00:01:52] Carol: Thank you so much for having me. What an exciting time for teens all over the United States.
[00:01:58] I can't wait for you all to share their stories and I know they're going to have a huge impact.
[00:02:05] Steph: Yes they already have with Gareth's story. We featured teens previously on Bold Blind Beauty, but we never had a dedicated section. So I think this is such a brilliant idea and we're excited. We're excited to see how this is going to change teens across the globe. And let's get into it. I'm going to hand the mic over to Gabby for our first question.
[00:02:32] Gabby: Thank you so much. Dr. Scholz can you share the story of how you became involved with teaching students on the blindness spectrum and what drew you to this field?
[00:02:44] Carol: Well, I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And my father was profoundly deaf from a very young age. He had an ear infection that caused his deafness. And In that day, there were very few specialized services for people who were deaf. And he basically just went to public school without services.
[00:03:08] And the stories he told me of teachers not understanding him and using a ruler and hitting him on the fingers if he didn't understand what they were telling him to do. And just a very difficult childhood, I think, from the age of nine for him.
[00:03:23] He was a brilliant man, absolutely brilliant. And because of his deafness, he had difficulty finishing college. Then he had struggles throughout his life with employment and so forth. And so we grew up in a very challenging financial situation because of his disability. My dad gradually also lost his vision as he got older through macular degeneration, so he was technically deaf-blind as as a later older adult.
[00:03:53] So I went to college that was an expectation and a dream of my parents. So I went to the University of Pittsburgh and it's a really wonderful story. I love to tell it because it shows what you can do with your life coming from limited means.
[00:04:10] So I was graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in psychology and I thought I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. So I thought, well, I'll just volunteer over at Western Psychiatric Institute, and I did that for one day, and I realized that I really did not want to do that. That was not my calling.
[00:04:27] So I went home that evening, I prayed and I asked God for some direction. I might want to teach deaf children because of my dad. And I realized the University of Pittsburgh had a program for preparing teachers of the visually impaired. So I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. So I wrote down two phone numbers the program for the visually impaired and the program for the deaf ed. I wasn't sure which type of teaching I wanted to go into. I neglected to put down on the piece of paper which was which.
[00:04:59] So, the next morning I called the 1st number that happened to be Dr. Moore at the University of Pittsburgh, she and Dr. Peabody were the head of that program. I explained that I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. And she said, well, why don't you just come over and talk to me? So I went over there and we sat down and she was wonderful.
[00:05:20] By the end of our conversation, she invited me to apply to the program and offered me a full paid scholarship to attend the University of Pittsburgh and get my master's in education or the visually impaired. And I still wasn't sure because I wanted to make sure that what I was doing was what God wanted me to do with my life.
[00:05:40] So I told her that, and she said, well, you interested in doing some volunteer work? And I said, oh, yes, I would love that. So she said, well, let me call over to the school for the blind. She called the School for the Blind first and then I spoke to the director and they said, well, come on over and let's talk about it.
[00:05:57] So that same day I went over to the School for the Blind and I interviewed for volunteering. The director said, well, you know, we, have an opening as a house parent for the kindergarten girls ages three through nine. It was, a residential school and a day school. So this was in the residential program and it was after school. Of course I said, yes, Oh, my gosh, yes, that would be fabulous. So she offered me the job and I took a tour of the school and I just literally fell in love. I fell in love with the Kindergarten Girls and the whole program and I worked there for nearly a year while I was finishing up my bachelor's degree.
[00:06:45] So I never did call that second number because in one day, I had a scholarship, a job and I loved it and I have loved it my whole life. I've been an educator for more than 35 years.
[00:07:01] That's how I got involved with teaching the visually impaired. And then, of course, I went and got my master's degree. And I volunteered to do a special practicum working with significantly cognitively disabled students, and that was also a blessing. I've used that in my work today.
[00:07:23] I hope it inspires other people. So much can happen in one day in your life that will change your whole life. And I thank my dad. My dad is my guardian angel. Everything I've done in my life is because of my daddy.
[00:07:39] And I hope I benefit other children so they don't have to experience the trials that he, suffered. I hope I've made their lives better and I'm still trying to do that.
[00:07:51] Gabby: Thank you so much, Dr. Scholz. I appreciate it.
[00:07:54] Carol: Oh, you're so welcome.
[00:07:57] Gabby: You mentioned that your 10th grade student keeps a journal about the episodes he watches. How has this practice influenced his perspective and learning experience?
[00:08:10] Carol: I just stumbled upon Bold Blind Beauty about a year and a half ago. And I just watched a few of the videos and they were so amazing. The reason that I use them is because people on the blindness and visual impaired spectrum it's the lowest incidence of the low incidence. So if you take the population of disabled students all over the United States, the last time I looked at roughly 10%; it is 10% of the 10%. So when you have a low incidence disability it's oftentimes isolating. You may be the only child, not only in the class, but in the whole school. If you are fully mainstreamed, which most of my students, of are you may be the only one.
[00:08:56] And I felt that in my students that sometimes they would feel like they were so alone. And I want didn't want them to feel that way, because I have the privilege of working all day. I have an 11 hour a day schedule some days, and I see 1 student after another. So I see a wide spectrum. I wanted them to have the privilege of hearing these amazing stories. I think storytelling is so powerful and I learned that from Steph that that storytelling is a most powerful tool. The stories that I first heard myself, I wanted to share with my students because I didn't want them to feel alone; I wanted them to expand their horizons.
[00:09:43] It's one thing for old Dr. Scholz to be telling them, Oh, you could try this and you could try that. It's another thing to hear from real adults who have gone through either a loss of vision or, congenitally blind from birth and sharing their stories of all of their successes and the joy of life. And I wanted my students to experience that.
[00:10:09] I want my students to know that there's always life ahead of them and that there are so many opportunities. It's been my experience that a vision loss opens up different doors. And I wanted my students to see that and hear that.
[00:10:23] So, every Friday, not every Friday, because some days they have so much homework. My students are generally speaking, enrolled in gen ed classes in big high schools with 3000 kids. But I do have some that are medically fragile that I see at home. So I have a wide spectrum.
[00:10:42] But the teens that I have on Fridays, we call it Friyay, we've done all kinds of college and career and expanded core activities on Fridays. But I started showing these videos and it has become the favorite thing to do on Fridays during Friyay. Each young adult creates a folder, a college and career folder. And in that folder, they have the journal and we always start out with a description of what the person looks like which is there on the site. You can read it and you can also add your own description, but there is a description of what the person looks like and what they're doing in their photographs. Then we listen to it and then we talk about it.
[00:11:24] So we listen to the interview and then throughout the interview, I encourage my students to take notes. So they're taking notes on their refreshable braille or on their iPad with voiceover, or, whatever way they prefer. Then afterwards we discuss what they think, what they learned, how they feel and how it could change their life.
[00:11:45] Nasreen: Dr. Schultz, this is Nasreen. This is really inspiring to hear all the wonderful take aways that the students actually get from watching and listening to the Men In Motion and the Women On The Move features and how you integrate them into your curriculum each week. And we here at Bold Blind Beauty are demystifying blindness through storytelling. Storytelling is a huge part of what we do, and we just love the fact that you, are incorporating these incredible stories to share with your teens.
[00:12:15] Can you elaborate a little bit more about some of the feedback you got from them and maybe if you have any examples of some challenges?
[00:12:23] Carol: I'd be happy to. So I have the one student who's the inaugural Teen In Flight interviewee, Gareth, and he has been interested in sound engineering for years. He's currently enrolled in a sound engineering class. And so he's very interested in voices and mixing sounds and making music and he really would love to do the background tracks for games or videos or movies. He's very interested in all that.
[00:12:58] So he, he was taking a sound engineering class at school and learning how to use the Mac with voiceover and his refreshable braille mantis and so forth. He also was taking private lessons outside of school that were sponsored by a local organization and from a professional in the field.
[00:13:21] But when Gareth learned about a voiceover artist who everyone told would never succeed. That he, he wouldn't even be able to go to college and, and the expectation was that he was not going to be able to do anything. And now he is working in Hollywood as a professional voice artist, I just can't describe Garrett's face when he was listening to that. It was like, I really can do this.
[00:13:52] The amazement that he had hearing the actual story of someone who overcame a visual impairment and is working in the field that he really wants to work in. And there's nothing that I could say or do that would ever do that. I could encourage him every day, all day long. Oh, you can do anything you want, anything you set your mind to. But when he heard that real life story, I believe, ignited in him the self assurance. I saw immediate difference in his self assurance about where he's going and what he's going to do and that it's not only possible that it's probable and that he can be a success at that.
[00:14:38] He's a straight A student and he works very hard at school but that was just a turning point, I believe. And I think we'll see a lot of those types of turning points. We all have our stories. And we all have the, the potential to affect other people's lives and I think that this will, I saw it in him, a transformation.
[00:15:02] And then the other part of the question was, well, do I have challenges? Time is always a challenge, but you have to make time. This is important. I view it as just as important as learning braille. It's just as important as learning assistive technology. The relational and social aspect of promoting blind children to be all they can be and to do what they want to do is equally as important as all of the technology and all of the academics. These episodes show that students on the visual impairment spectrum can grow up and do so many amazing things with their lives and that they're not limited.
[00:15:51] It removes the limitation and it removes the loneliness and it gives them hope for a future. And it's not a sighted person telling them that so I'm sighted and I believe that., There's so many teachers who are sighted, I think it's valuable. It's invaluable for them to hear from the blindness and the visual impaired community itself about how to explore life and live life to the fullest.
[00:16:22] Ever wondered how someone with vision loss creates stunning art? Meet Krista Webb. Hello, my name is Krista Webb. Bold Blind Beauty is excited to announce a very special limited edition collaboration with Krista Webb. I am a wood burning artist. Also legally blind and hard of hearing. I have a condition called Usher syndrome Type two A.
[00:16:46] Shortly I became legally blind I discovered Pyrography in 2019. I then joined the Instagram world in 2020 and became a burn club member. In 2021 I became quite involved with the deaf and blind communities. Over the years, my artwork has been published in books, articles, brochures, and even in calendars. Oh, and on an episode TV show with PBS, I've been commissioned to do artwork all over the U S I've been honored to be interviewed by some awesome people, companies, and even news reporters.
[00:17:28] Stay tuned for upcoming limited edition collab with Krista Webb. Each piece will embody the spirit of Bold Blind Beauty.
[00:17:35] Dana: Dr. Scholz, can you share more about your remarkable students, particularly in navigating academic and personal life using assistive technology.
[00:17:52] Carol: Oh, I'd be happy to assistive technology is a key that opens up so many doors in academics and recreation across the whole the whole day, the whole life. It's not just for one thing.
[00:18:08] So Gareth has excelled in assistive technology his whole life, and I've had him since he was in kindergarten. So, from a very young age, he learned braille. But then he was introduced to refreshable braille in 2nd grade, and he's gone through all the generations of refreshable braille, starting with an Apex then a BrailleNote Touch then BrailleNote Touch Plus and now Mantis. And I'm part of a group that's piloting the Monarch. The Monarch is one of the most amazing pieces of equipment that I have seen in my lifetime. And it's refreshable braille, but it's a full page.
[00:18:48] So with the Monarch, you can access if you think about reading braille math problems, for instance, you can only get a couple cells under your fingertips. But with a Monarch, instead of having a single line of braille, he has a whole page and he just took that home for the summer. I introduced it very briefly, just a few lessons and he's taken off and he'll probably come back to school in the fall and be an expert.
[00:19:15] So his attitude towards learning It's just amazing. He, tackles every new topic with gusto. We call him Mr. positive because he's just always determined from a very young age to conquer everything.
[00:19:32] Assistive technology the district that he attends has been so generous and they're a large district. There are many school districts who can't afford the tools that he's had over the years. And I am so excited that, the American Printing House is pairing with Humanware and getting federal funding. And through the quota system hopefully students will have access to the large Monarch display. But I'm, I'm so encouraged. I seen over time that some smaller school districts don't have the manpower to get training and assistive technology. And the funds it's so expensive. I just happen to work for a very generous devoted school district who was determined that they would give him whatever he needed his entire life and he's had he's had access to everything.
[00:20:26] So I think access to technology is so important because with technology he uses the full Google suite. So, he uses Google classroom, Google docs, Gmail, everything.
[00:20:38] So, to give you an example, instead of having braille textbooks that are 10 volumes, 12 volumes of these big, heavy braille textbooks he just has all of his files provided electronically except for math. Which we still we have our own embosser and we have a talented braille transcriber who transcribes math into hard copy braille.
[00:21:02] But even math is available via Google. So he will log into his drive, his doc will be there. I can watch him and work with him directly in the same document as he's working live with his refreshable braille. So, in my lifetime, I have seen the most amazing progress and assistive technology. And I think the key is to provide it at a young age so they're natives it's not scary and they love it. It gives students access to general education to any material that anybody else has without waiting. I order very, few braille textbooks, only math. Assistive technology is just level the playing field in so many ways.
[00:21:52] Steph: Thank you for that, Dr. Scholz. Assistive technology definitely levels the playing field and it provides greater accessibility and inclusion for many people. So I have a two part question for you. How do you envision integrating the stories and experiences shared in the Teens In Flight segment into a broader curriculum for students with visual impairments?
[00:22:16] And then the second, part of my question is: in what ways do you think collaboration with other organizations and educators can enhance the resources available for teaching transition skills to visually impaired students.
[00:22:32] Carol: The power of Bold Blind Beauty is the unique stories of people and how they've used their unique talents and, progressed in the world. Everything from judo to voiceover to, surfing, rock climbing, and all kinds of different ways that they've learned to adjust to life with little or no vision that have continued on with their dreams. That's in my eyes what my students are getting out of it.
[00:23:03] I think not only visually impaired people should, listen to these, I think everyone should listen to these episodes. So inspiring and so motivational and so informative. And they bridge the gap between visually impaired and sighted people. And I, I know it has because , just in the short time I've been using them, I see an uplifting effect. It's like the wind beneath their wings. And I know that might be trite, but that's what it is. It's the Teens In Flight and they're lifting off and they're going to go on a great adventure in life.
[00:23:42] I think as this rolls out, that that is so important that we get the word out that we share. Because I think that it really should be disseminated nationwide through whatever organizations we have contact with. Because it, it could be the beginning of a new sort of college and career awareness curriculum. I can see that as a development coming down the road where teachers share how they use it.
[00:24:14] I have my limited experience and success, and, I think the more that we involve other teachers and teacher preparation programs, I would love to do that to reach out to University of Texas and Colorado and so forth and different organizations, Commissions for the Blind, Schools for the Blind, and the all of the organizations, the adult organizations. And I think this is just the beginning. I think I think the networking will be so important as we move forward.
[00:24:43] American Printing House for the Blind has lots of great resources. I'd love to see them provide links to this and include it in some of their trainings, or maybe we could do a training with them. I'm very hopeful that other organizations will see the beauty of this.
[00:25:01] And maybe we could collaborate as we move forward. It's not going to happen all at once, but we could collaborate with lesson plans on on different episodes. And there could be a central folder or, resource where we could share lessons with each other as we move forward.
[00:25:19] With professionals coming together from so many different organizations to train pilot and disseminate it. Most teachers have never had a blind student, they've never even met a blind person. I run across that all the time. So this could be used in teacher prep programs. To, help them understand, that there's a whole community out out there and I could see it used that way as well.
[00:25:47] So I serve students in several different states and IEP systems all over the United States. When a student turns 14, you develop a transition program for them. And that includes specific goals that cover a college and career, community housing, skills of daily living, cooking and all of that. And it really does fit nicely into that curriculum area.
[00:26:11] In our IEP system we, as professionals, as teachers, as TVIs all over the United States, we are writing goals like: Gareth will interview three professionals who have visual impairments and, or, Gareth will visit three colleges services and, interview about their services at the college level. So we're writing specific goals about that and this just fits beautifully into that.
[00:26:38] So there is a need for it and a need for resources. And I can see that it will gradually become a common for, teachers to use it. It's a fun way to address college and career.
[00:26:52] Gabby: I just wanted to say, I feel very inspired by everything you're talking about and everything that you're doing and I want to thank you. I would love to hear more about this, it's really fascinating, and it's important, like you said, it's very needed.
[00:27:13] Carol: Yes, I think we focus on academics, as teachers there is the expanded core which covers a lot of different areas other than academics. And I think this fits nicely into that framework. It fits nicely into college and career.
[00:27:29] I wanted to say also, I noticed that the laws that cover students in public schools are different than the laws that cover students and young adults in college. And that needs to be addressed because college students need equal access to assistive technology but it is not guaranteed, which is interesting. But I'm very encouraged because I think we're moving in the right direction and it's coming. Especially with the introduction of this Monarch and the teamwork that that is entailed.
