{"id":2617,"date":"2013-10-03T14:36:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T20:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/?p=2617"},"modified":"2013-10-25T15:41:26","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T21:41:26","slug":"ms-wheelchair-america-2014-to-speak-at-belmont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/2013\/10\/03\/ms-wheelchair-america-2014-to-speak-at-belmont\/","title":{"rendered":"Ms. Wheelchair America 2014 to speak at Belmont"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JenniferAdams\"<\/a>\u201cI\u2019m going to show the world that having a disability is cool!\u201d<\/p>\n

Those are the words of Jennifer Adams, Ms. Wheelchair America 2014, who will speak on the \u201cInclusion Revolution\u201d at Belmont University on Tuesday, October 8, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. in McWhorter Hall Room 110.\u00a0 The event is sponsored by the Belmont Student Occupational Therapy Association (BSOTA) and is open and free to the public, with convocation credit available to Belmont students.<\/p>\n

Ms. Adams is a successful 33-year-old businesswoman from Tacoma, Washington.\u00a0 She was born with partial limbs and has used a wheelchair her whole life.\u00a0 She grew up in a family of eight children after being adopted along with five of her siblings, all who had either down syndrome or cerebral palsy.\u00a0 “I believe that really set me up to grow up into the world with a view of diversity and to accept people from the inside first,” Adams said. “I attribute a lot to my parents.”\u00a0 Her adopted mother, Jeanne, is a family doctor in Chehalis, Washington.<\/p>\n

It was teasing she experienced in her youth that led Adams to seek out ways to tell her story.\u00a0\u00a0 For 17 years, she has been motivating others with her positive message.\u00a0 \u201cWe all have limitations,\u201d said Adams in a recent interview with her hometown newspaper, The News Tribune, \u201cbut if you press beyond your limitations, that\u2019s where fulfillment and life\u2019s purpose lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams is a radiant, high energy spokeswoman who enjoys singing, public speaking, and skateboarding.\u00a0 She holds a master\u2019s degree in counseling from Faith Seminary in Tacoma and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Pacific Lutheran University.\u00a0 After receiving her master\u2019s degree, she worked at the Tacoma School of the Arts as an advocate for students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Adams has a passion for the arts; acting, dancing, and singing.\u00a0 She has experienced barriers to her passion in the mainstream art world due to her disability, but her goal is to encourage people to take their gifts and talents out into the world to break down barriers of discrimination. \u201cWhen people with disabilities show the world our talents,\u201d she says, \u201cdisabilities dissolve and abilities shine forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the News Tribune interview, Adams laid out one of her main goals for the coming year:\u00a0 \u201cI want to advocate for the inclusion model of education within public school systems all over the nation. The special education system in public schools is very antiquated. There\u2019s still a lot of segregation where a student can spend all day in a special education classroom, instead of interacting with their peers. Statistics show special education students flourish when they\u2019re in mainstream classrooms because it challenges them in a different way than in a special education classroom. It helps them flourish socially, too. They are more likely to succeed when they become independent adults, because isolation keeps them from socializing with their peers. There are some cases where it\u2019s not better for kids to be in a mainstream classroom, but I would say 85 percent of special education students could be fully included in the mainstream classroom and do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students in BSOTA are doctoral level students at Belmont in the School of Occupational Therapy, part of the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m going to show the world that having a disability is cool!\u201d Those are the words of Jennifer Adams, Ms. Wheelchair America 2014, who will speak on the \u201cInclusion Revolution\u201d at Belmont University on Tuesday, October 8, 2013 at 6:00 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chs","category-occupational-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2638,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions\/2638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}