[Oabs] This month's call

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi everyone,

Hurray for an exciting and action-packed convention!  I hope that all
4 of us who went can say we belong to the NFBGWR club.  My blue
umbrella is going to get some use tomorrow, and I'm proud to have been
a part of the attempt to get it.

As most of us were at convention it seems kind of silly to spend an
entire call rehashing resolutions and general sessions.  Instead, I
have taken an idea I got while sitting in the Kentucky delegation and
am running with it.  It was perfect hearing Serena Olsen speak about
her experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kurgystan right after
coming home from Jamaica, and later that week I talked to her about
the possibility of speaking on one of our calls about the experience.
Serena doesn't return to Central Asia until the end of the month and
likes the idea, so as long as she's available for our call we'll have
her as a guest.  I've also asked Juanita from Abroad With
Disabilities, an organization that helped me prepare for my first trip
abroad, to see if she or one of her team members can make the call as
well.  We can each talk about the experiences we've had of working and
studying abroad in various geographical locales, the organizations we
worked with to get there and the supports that were/weren't in place,
and the #Blind Abroad campaign you might have seen myself and others
tweeting for or heard Justin Harford talk about at NABS.  If you've
ever had dreams of Spanish emersion programs, or just casually asking
for directions to the loo, then this call will be one you don't want
to miss.  I might open it up to other interested NABS students if it
all falls into place as well because this topic is rarely given due
attention.  If it weren't for AWD I would not have been prepared for
my trip at all and we as blind students need to know about these
resources.

More information will follow.  We still will discuss convention and
interesting points about it after the pannel, but just watch your
emails.  I have not seen anything about awards packets yet, but also
look out for that in case I need to call a special meeting, set up a
special committee or group to work on that this year, or set up
another system to get the documentation done in a better way than we
did last year.

Rest up, guys!  Talk to you soon.

-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton 2016.
Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
Secretary, NFB Performing Arts Division
Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma