[Iabs-talk] Fwd: Supporting A Blind Exchange Student

[Gregory Chang Patti]

Patti S. Gregory-Chang
NFB Scholarship Comm. Chair
Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Katherine French <kfrench at americancouncils.org>
> Date: December 21, 2012, 11:35:41 AM CST
> To: "president at nfbofillinois.org" <president at nfbofillinois.org>
> Subject: Supporting A Blind Exchange Student
> 
> Dear President of NFB of Illinios,
>  
> I wanted to reach out to you to see if you might be able to help us support one our students who is blind. A little context- I work for an organization, American Councils in Washington D.C. that works with exchange students on one academic year long State Department funded scholarships. We have a blind student, Nikola from Montenegro, who is currently being hosted by a family in Michigan.
>  
> His current family does not have the knowledge or time to support Nikola with orienting himself around the home and gaining independence by using the skills he learned in a recent orientation and mobility training- so we are hoping to find a family in another state who might be better able to support Nikola for the second semester of school. I thought the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois might be a great resource, since we actually had a low-vision student from Turkey attend the IL School for the Visually Impaired last year!
>  
> With that said, I was wondering if you might be willing to spread the word about Nikola to your local chapters and see if there was anyone interested in potentially hosting Nikola in their home for a semester. It would be so beneficial for him to be around other blind individuals as well as family members with experience orienting and supporting a blind individual- he would certainly learn a lot from his time here and take back some good skills when he return to Montenegro in June.
>  
> I’d be happy to answer any questions you have as well as share a flyer if you’d like to circulate one. Thank you so much for your time and I wish you happy holidays!
>  
> Best regards,
> Katie
>  
>  
> Katie French
>  
> Want to see what inspires me?
>  
> Program Assistant • Secondary School Programs • American Councils for International Education|1828 L Street, NW, Suite 1200|Washington, DC 20036|(: 866.790.2086|(: 202.833.7522 | Fax: 202.833.7523 | *: kfrench at americancouncils.org |www.americancouncils.org| 
>  
> For more information on hosting a US State Department Scholarship student:  http://inbound.americancouncils.org
>