Name: Aaron Westendorp
Age: 20
Location: Edina, MN
School/Employer: Minneapolis Community and Technical College
Interests: Music, Percussion, Activism
What does it mean to you to be a leader?: It means that I get to assist people in getting better care and a better education
What’s different/unique about being a leader with a disability?: You get a lot of attention
Something that You’re Good At: Communication with others
Something that You Want to Learn: How to be more efficient with my projects
What is your leadership goal?: To make change in this messed up society
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Name: Alex C. Edward Brown
Age: 18
Location: Monticello, Fl
School/Employer: Tallahassee Community College/ Agency for Persons with Disabilities
Interests: I enjoy playing role-playing games, and reading fantasy novels. I like to bowl and am very involved in my church.
What does it mean to you to be a leader?: To me a leader is the person who is willing, no matter the risk, step out and blaze a new path. Leaders have to be willing to accept the responsibility for their actions. No one will follow someone who doesn’t do anything. A leader leads by his action as well as his words.
What’s different/unique about being a leader with a disability?: What makes being a leader with a disability unique is they not only have the responsibilities that every other leader has, but they also the limitation that their disabilities place on them.
Something that You’re Good At: I am good at giving speeches
Something that You Want to Learn: I want to learn how to more effectively edit my own writings
What is your leadership goal?: My leadership goal is to work on getting those who either follow me or those who are fellow leader more involved in what I am trying to accomplish. I can’t win many battles on my own. I need their help, but a lot of times I have the mentality that have to do it alone.
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Name: Carly Fahey
Age: 16 (as of May 19th)
Location: Tallahassee, Fl
School/Employer: Leon High School
Interests: Movies, Music, Shopping, Current Events
What does it mean to you to be a leader?: Being a leader has been eye opening and very meaningful to me. Leadership brought me a tremendous amount of experience in life. It helped me realize that I can achieve anything I set my mind to, that’s not something you can learn in any classroom. It means a great deal to me to be able to share my perspective with other people and it is to me to be able to be seen by adults as not just a kid or another average teenager.
What’s different/unique about being a leader with a disability?: I think experiences with any kind of disability often builds character. Every leader with a disability has something different to bring to the table, regarding their challenges that they have faced or conquered. I think that a lot of times leaders with a disability learn not to take many things for granted, because you know that some things don’t come as easily as others in life.
Something that You’re Good at: playing the Flute
Something that You Want to Learn: How to sail
What is your leadership goal?: to make a significant change for the better for all individuals with disabilities.
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Name: Mikelle Learned
Age: 22
Location: Denver, CO
School/Employer: Tango Consulting as a presenter, FashionAble as small business owner.
Interests: Fashion, presenting, hanging out with my friends at Starbucks, volleyball in the park with my friends and Usher…always.
What does it mean to you to be a leader?: Showing people around me that having a disability doesn’t mean you can’t have the good stuff in life. I like giving presentations which show people how I have used assistive technology to work, live in my own place and have lots of friends and fun!
What’s different/unique about being a leader with a disability?: Sometimes people think you are stupid and you have to work harder to let them know you have things to offer.
Something that You’re Good At: Selling. I can sell bracelets after a presentation very well. I have fun with people and seem to be effective in helping them see things a different way.
Something that You Want to Learn: More about leadership from the other members.
What is your leadership goal?: To be an example that having a disability doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and have the good things in life.
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Name: Kati Seymour
Age: 25
Location: South Dakota
School/Employer: Sinte Gleska University/ University of South Dakota
Interests: camping, boating, riding horses, snow skiing, theater, writing poetry, playing the tuba
What does it mean to you to be a leader?: Making the impossible possible through vision, thought, words and action.
What’s different/unique about being a leader with a disability?: The most challenging thing is overcoming the stigma attached with society’s connotation of disability.
Something that You’re Good At: playing Scrabble®
Something that You Want to Learn: Chinese
What is your leadership goal?: For now: To empower youth and families affected by diverse needs not to limit themselves in achieving equality…. and perhaps one day become the Governor of South Dakota.
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Name: Megan Reynolds
Age:17
Location: Providence, RI
School/Employer: Feinstien High School
Interests: Egypt, reading Harry Potter books (1-6 waiting for book 7 to come out)
What does it mean to you to be a leader?: A leader helps his/her peers and is opened to new ideas.
What’s different/unique about being a leader with a disability?: Others non-disabled people might see the disabled as a lower state but others who are disabled might need others that are open to new ideas.
Something that You’re Good At: I am good at typing, making new stories here and now.
Something that You Want to Learn: I want to learn about being a good leader and show others who are not disabled that people with disabilities can do the things they can.
What is your leadership goal?: To be a good listener.
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