Jenna Abell Receives Full Scholarship to New College in Sarasota
by John Townsend, Program Director, Arc of Putnam CountyJenna Abell was born prematurely weighing a little over three pounds and has cerebral palsy. She had a pretty rough start.
Her first five weeks of life were spent in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Her childhood was punctuated with five different surgeries, exhaustive recoveries, ongoing physical therapy, and more doctors’ appointments than most people have in a lifetime. She now walks with canes for shorter distances and uses a scooter for longer trips.
Jenna is much more.
She is a National Merit Scholar, winning summa cum laude in International Baccalaureate courses, rocking an $80,000 New College honors scholarship, and an accepting young woman who loves learning and can’t wait to take a shot at living her own life. And now, finally, she’s poised to take that exciting step.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she says, “my parents have been the best and have helped me face my challenges in so many ways, but what I really want is to be seen as the adult I am and to start facing the future on my own terms.”
The first step in that process begins August 15, when she reports to New College in Sarasota, an honors undergraduate college in the state university system, on a full scholarship, earned solely on her extraordinary academic prowess. Jenna entertained inquiries from many of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country before settling on New College and finishing sixth in her class at Pedro Menendez High School in St. Augustine.
"The uniqueness and vibrancy of New College is what really attracted me to the institution," says Jenna. "The student body seemed so much like the kind of person I want to be: academically driven, socially aware, active, and compassionate—and most importantly, unabashedly geeky about their passions."
Of particular importance to Jenna personally is that her hard work and attention to her studies has, in effect, resulted in her paying for her college education.
"It's very liberating for me to be able to say that I did this all myself. Nobody gave me anything, this is all on my own merit. As a person who has a physical disability, I had to rely on extensive support from others all my life. It was such a boost to my self-confidence to have achieved something so momentous entirely on my own, and I think it stands as proof of my work ethic and resilience in general."
It’s an exciting time for Jenna, mixed with many emotions. There is the impending separation from her parents, Jeff and Lauren Abell, her brother and cohort Bryce, her loving extended family, and her many friends; there is, for the first time, the loss of daily support from her parents; there is the challenge of adapting to a new world. But none of these can temper the yearning she feels to chart her own course, make her own mistakes, and achieve her own goals.
Those goals include exploring a career in psychotherapy by day and writing her own poems, novels and short stories by night. She is also passionate about helping people who do not have disabilities learn to see the whole, complex person, and not just the disability, in those who do. It’s a subject she knows very well.
“I want to do something to help others," she states emphatically. "I want to become a psychologist to help people who struggle with mental illnesses, and I hope to be able to continue working in disability advocacy for the rest of my life, so that I can push for accessibility in all things. It's my dream to help decrease the stigma of pity and shame around all disabilities and instead make disabilities seen as what they are: a valuable part of us, but not our whole personhood, and nothing to be ashamed of."
Jenna Abell.
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