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VIDBE-Q Volume 64 Issue 3
are often flush with questions, but finding answers to those questions can
be difficult. The Council of Exceptional Children (CEC) has helped connect
me to a nation-wide network of professionals in our field, from teachers to
researchers. This resource has been valuable in my own efforts to
problem-solve supports for students and seek answers. The connections I
have made along my journey, from Peace Corps service, to the National
Federation of the Blind (NFB), to doctoral work at the University of Illinois at
Chicago (UIC), have informed my professional interests and have helped
pave my career, to date. I am thankful for the chance to share with the
VIDBE-Q readers some of the experiences and relationships that have
shaped me as a teacher and now as a researcher.
It was a chance meeting that brought me to working with students
with visual impairments. My undergraduate degree is in Egyptian
Archaeology. To me, archaeology met that need to answer questions. I
loved studying archaeology and working in museums, but as I approached
graduation, I knew that it was not what I wanted to do with the rest of my
life. So, I joined the US Peace Corps and found myself headed to the
Kyrgyz Republic. While primarily based in a small village teaching English,
working on a side project introduced me to Elnura Emilkanova and the Osh
Special Boarding School for the Blind. I did not realize then that those early
