[nabs-l] questions and assistance needed for starting online college

Thu Aug 2 22:38:01 UTC 2012

Dear Melissa,
I agree completely regarding the Virginia department for the blind and 
especially the staff in the Fairfax office. No, I would not count on them 
assisting you in paying for an online school since it is not traditional. 
They will not believe you can do it. More importantly, they only pay the 
tuition of the highest Virginia school. So, you would not get full funding 
anyway.
BTW, you do not have to be in VABS to be a member of the vabs list, but it 
is never active and may as well not exist. I've not gotten a message in 
forever and I  did not participate in vabs because I felt that it was 
inactive and the students were not as inclusive as they could have been.
You can feel free to try vabs yourself though. I think Brilley Pollard is 
the current president, but it did not work for me.
I got support from this list and went about it on my own during college. At 
my first college, they had other blind students, but since it was so big, it 
really didn't matter. When I transferred to a private school, I was the only 
blind student there.

I did not ask the rehab department to pay for my schooling.
If you do try it, be aware of the rules about it.

Regarding other financial sources, I'd also suggest lions club. Try for the 
NFB scholarship too.
If its expensive, you may have a hard time paying without family support. 
You could try a general loan from
Citibank; this may offer you the best solution as a scholarship from a 
charity will not even cover a semester. If its as expensive as a private 
school, you are looking at 20 thousand a year.

Its an interesting field, one of which I don't think blind people have 
tried. Good luck.
Ashley
-----Original Message----- 
From: Mystical Charm
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 6:11 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] questions and assistance needed for starting online 
college

I have copied and pasted below an email that I sent to the VABS (Virginia 
Association of Blind Students) moderator but, I have not received any 
response so, I am writing here in hopes I can receive some assistance of 
some kind so that I can begin my studies.

------------------------- 

Greetings to you Angie Matney,

I wanted to write you in hopes that you may be of some assistance to me. I 
was unsure if I would correctly qualify to join the list or not for the 
Virginia Association of Blind Students or not so, I wanted to write you 
directly and find out if you can give me any information or a direction to 
go.

Now to tell you a little bit about me and my situation.

My name is Melissa, I am 32 years old and I am blind; I was born with a 
visual impairment, Glaucoma. Over the years I did have the normal 
treatments; the usage of multiple eye drops and in hospital surgery as well 
as laser surgery but, none of these were effective so, my vision declined 
over time and I am left with no usable vision.

I truly believe I belong in the health field however, the particular area in 
health is viewed by some as absurd, while others try out different methods 
and can take it or leave it and others still like having the option to 
incorporate in methods in their life's and others truly believe in the 
benefits. What I am talking about is natural medicine. This covers 
complementary methods as well as alternative therapies. It includes anything 
from holistic dentistry and Chiropractics to Acupuncture to Homeopathy and 
Massage therapy and goes into the subjects of Vitamins and Minerals and 
exercise/fitness to energy work and meditation and so many more other 
topics.

The average university/College may only have a course or two in a subject 
named above or something similar if they offer them at all. The only 
colleges that I know of that deal specifically with these subjects are 
Naturopathy Colleges and there are only perhaps 3-5 of them in the United 
States. I don't desire to move to one of these states in which one of these 
Naturopathy Colleges are located, the only alternative I have is searching 
the internet for legitimate schools online so that I can do the schoolwork 
from home. I have found a couple of Colleges that are of interest to me with 
what they offer and I have checked to see if their accreditation is 
legitimate or not and they do seem to be so.

I do know that being a doctor is possible for a person who is blind; I once 
went to a lecture/discussion at my local hospital and the man that was 
speaking had been a doctor for a number of years and he was blind. At the 
time, I wasn't interested in being in the health field, I was a young 
teenager and was still trying to have fun and be me. Later, as I explored 
the internet and searched for doctors, I found these articles:

blind doctor sees patients in a different way

http://nfb.org/legacy/bm/bm01/bm0105/bm010514.htm

blind medical student earns his me.d.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7318398/ns/health-health_care/

This next article is about a woman who went to one of the Naturopathy 
schools I had briefly mentioned above:

PAC Mate User Story: Chris Cooke, Medical Student
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/PAC_Mate_HQ_ChrisCooke.asp

This woman does have her own practice, which I hope to have one day, and she 
also does have a website:

http://www.healing4you.net/

I believe that Holistic Practitioner is what I am aiming for because again, 
the Naturopathic Colleges are just not possible for me to attend. I would 
eventually do what others would need to do by becoming board certified and 
then having a license to practice.

One of the biggest challenges is the tuition for these programs/courses 
online and I am not sure how to go about finding out if there may be any 
possible scholarships I could apply for or not. Both of the Colleges that I 
would like to study from does not participate in any federal or state 
financial aid programs at this time, therefore, no federal grants are 
applicable (including Stafford and Pell). I would like to mention here some 
of the possibilities that the Admissions had told me about from one of the 
Colleges-- 

-I was told that a private loan or alternative loan is possible, most big 
lenders (e.g. SunTrust, Wells Fargo, Citibank) will offer such options. 
However, I would like to stay away from loans if possible.

-Other suggestions that were mentioned to me either do not apply or that are 
not possible for me. One of the Colleges does have a scholarship available 
to students however, with the requirements to be able to apply, I do not 
qualify. Also, an employer tuition grant does not apply to me.

-Local Community Service Organizations such as Masonic Organizations,

Eastern Star(OES), Moose and Elks Lodges, or Chambers of Commerce may 
provide grants.

I was possibly thinking about contacting one of these but, didn't know how 
successful I would be. What came to mind was the Lions Club since they 
assist with people who are blind. I am not sure if they would have a 
grant/scholarship or what they may be able to provide. I did notice in the 
list of mailing lists the NFB has available to the public is the NFB Lions 
so, I would like to know if you recommend me writing to that list and 
providing this same information that I am sending to you?

-Another suggestion that was mentioned was

Vocational Rehabilitation Programs

for assistance. What came to mind was the Virginia Department for the Blind 
and Visually Impaired. I know I would need to deal with the one located in 
Fairfax since that is the closest to me and I have also dealt with them in 
the past. I am apprehensive about contacting the Virginia Department for the 
Blind and Visually Impaired because my experiences with them in the past 
were quite unpleasant and some were even unprofessional. I don't know if the 
Virginia Department of the Blind and Visually Impaired can be of help in 
assisting with expenses or  what they may be able to do in my situation or 
if it would be willing to assist me in making my desire to help others come 
true.

-Other suggestions were for women who have been harmed violently and again, 
this does not apply to me.

I am willing to do what is required to earn a scholarship of some kind so 
that I may be able to proceed with taking these programs/courses if a 
scholarship's requirements apply to me.

The only other thing that concerns me is, when I am enrolled into certain 
programs/courses, how to have certain materials more accessible or even in 
an alternative method like having something tactile. The doctors who are 
blind have had to have alternative and/or tactile materials of some kind. 
Whether in the Allopathic field or the Holistic field of health care, you 
need to study Anatomy/Physiology and reading the text book is good and all 
but, having something tactile to possibly go over the different areas of the 
body would be wonderful and also knowing where to get something like this is 
a question of mine as well that I need some assistance with how to find. In 
Holistic health care, you also have to identify the different types of herbs 
and the woman I had mentioned above, would have had to do so when she was 
going through her schooling and I would like to find out ways to be able to 
do this. I don't know if she had sighted assistance and someone did a very 
thorough job of explaining the look while she may have had the chance to 
examine the herbs tactily or not.

So, what i would like to know is:

-if the Virginia Association of Blind Students mailing list would apply to 
me or be of benefit.

-if you have any suggestions of other lists or people I can contact to find 
out more about how to proceed with scholarships or finding out about certain 
alternative materials I will need and where to locate it so that I can have 
them as I move through the programs/courses.

-If the Lions Club would be of help.

-any other suggestions you may have for me.

Thank you for your time and any help would be appreciated. Helping others in 
a more natural, holistic way has been a passion of mine for quite some time 
but, I really never knew where to begin and the more I looked into it, the 
more questions I had about beginning the process because of the finances as 
well as the materials I may need because of my disability.

Thank you,

Melissa Hambleton

mysticalcharm at comcast.net

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