PRINCETON — Learning Ally, a 68-year-old nonprofit serving individuals with learning and visual disabilities, announced that it has bestowed its highest award to Wesley Brooks of Metuchen.
Brooks is one of six students from across the U.S. who received scholarship awards and traveled with their families last month to be honored at the organization’s National Achievement Awards Gala celebration in Denver, according to a statement prepared by Learning Ally.
Brooks is visually impaired with limited peripheral vision, and he also has mild cerebral palsy. Despite living with two handicaps, he has been an active and vocal leader in a distinguished list of school- and community-based initiatives and is keenly interested in advocacy for people with disabilities, according to the statement.
He graduated in January from Monmouth University and is currently exploring career options in support of people who have disabilities like blindness.
“Learning Ally first intersected with me when I entered high school,” Brooks said in the statement. “It not only helped me to graduate and increase my independence, but it became a lifelong tool that I will use the rest of my life, from college and high school textbooks to recreational reading. It’s a way for me to be a part of the world and achieve what once was not very possible.”
Brooks aspires to become a high school English teacher.
“The world is full of interesting information, and just because one has a visual or print disability does not mean he should give up,” he said. “Partly because I have a disability, but really despite my disability it’s so important, even if you can make an impact on one person, that you do it and you do it well, because you’ll always be remembered for doing that.”