[nabs-l] 10 Best Tips for High School Students

Sun Oct 26 05:46:45 UTC 2008

I've written a lot about this topic, but it's important and I keep thinking
of good things based on what I'm hearing from other list members.
Don't limit yourself with your disability. Or in any other way either, but
disability is the focus of the tips. If you want to go away for school,
don't let anyone tell you no and base their reasoning on your blindness.
You'll have a lot of adjustments whether at home or away, and but so does
everyone else so there's lots of support around. Be adventurous. It's a
great skill that will help anyone in the future. Don't limit yourself to a
certain program of study because of your vision either. Aviation may be out
of the question for a cane user, but math/sciences aren't. Though they pose
different and sometimes greater challenges than an arts degree because of a
greater challenge in obtaining textbooks and such, it's not impossible. I
love arts degrees by the way - I'm not trying to incite a rivalry here. I
leave that to the engineers <grin>
Have a great day,
Sarah
P.S.: Orientation and mobility training preferably before classes begin is a
huge help. Again not something I had too much of but it would have been a
great help. But of course they're a lot of people around who can help if you
won't have a lesson for days and need a route learned ...

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Harry Hogue
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 11:07 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] 10 Best Tips for High School Students

Hello,

Be prepared to laugh, both when things are going well and when things are
stressful.  And always be able to laugh at yourself when you make mistakes,
because it will happen; learn from them... we all, sighted or blind, make
them!

And most important of all, realize that people are people, whether you are
in college, on the job, in high school, or anywhere else in life.  This
means that social skills, advocacy skills, a sense of humor, etc. are skills
that are not specific to students who are blind or have other disabilities,
but are useful even if you have no disability... everyone in the world has
had to use each one of these skills and techniques at some point in their
lives, no matter who they are.

Have fun!  It's a great experience!  Remember:  The little things are what
you will remember most, so don't get bogged down with details!

Cheers,

Harry

--- On Sat, 10/25/08, Beth <thebluesisloose at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Beth <thebluesisloose at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] 10 Best Tips for High School Students
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008, 6:42 PM

I've got a tip for high school students: please make sure that your
social skills are up.  I know this because let's face it, I don't
beleve that you should go anywhere without social readiness, so taking
a social skills course in high school wouldn't hurt.
Beth

On 10/25/08, T. Joseph Carter <tjosephcarter at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'll add another:  Take notes regarding your meetings in whatever form
you
> need to.  After a meeting, send back an email to the person you met with
> and thank them for meeting with you.  Even if it's someone you
can't stand
> and the meeting was hostile, do this.
>
> Also include a summary of what was talked about in the meeting with your
> thank-you.  Send yourself a carbon copy of these things and file them
> away.  If you interpret something wrong in the meeting, this gives the
> person you met with a chance to clarify.  If the meeting was less
> friendly, it gives the other person a chance to change what they are
> saying now that it's written down somewhere.  File responses you get
to
> those messages as well.
>
> If it sounds like I'm saying to be paranoid, I'm not.  Generally,
when
> things go well--and we hope that they do--this is polite and it gives
> people reminders of things they might otherwise forget.  It's a good
> thing, and it makes everything much more efficient.  It only starts to
> bother people if things get ugly and suddenly you have a written record of
> how ugly.
>
> Develop this professional habit early and make it a standard practice for
> the rest of your life.  It really is handy, and I don't mean in case
you
> need to call someone a liar, either.  It puts the important details in
> electronic form, and makes it easily accessible to search algorithms.
> You'll be the one person in the room who can figure out what the sales
> figures were three years ago without going to find the archives somewhere,
> and in most companies, that's the kind of organization that gets
people
> promoted.  This leads to higher salary and more than compensates for the
> extra hard drives you'll have to buy to save all that email and back
it up
> regularly.  *grin*
>
> Joseph
>
> On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 01:39:37PM -0400, Liz Bottner wrote:
>> The one thing I can think of off the top of my head is learn to
advocate
>> for
>> yourself and by yourself. If students start to do this in high school,
>> when
>> they get to college it won't be as big of a shock, at least I
wouldn't
>> think. Even if it's starting out small, anything is better than
nothing.
>>
>> Take care,
>>
>> Liz
>>
>> email: liz.bottner at gmail.com Visit my livejournal:
>> http://unsilenceddream.livejournal.com
>>
>>
>>
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