Student Highlights

The ABI Programs at GW attract a diverse body of students from various academic, professional, and personal backgrounds living in and around the Washington, D.C. area, and from around the nation. Some participate in on-campus programs (M.A., Ed.S, and certificate programs), while others have joined our program through online distance learning. Every two months we will feature new students and graduates of the program so, watch for new student highlights and featured student activities on this page!

JAN-FEB FEATURED STUDENTS AND GRADUATES

1. Katherine Kimes is currently a student in the M.A. program in Transition Special Education: Emphasis in Acquired Brain Injury. Her interests in brain injury developed as a result of a car accident during the summer of 1989 in which she sustained a severe TBI. Her goal is to “humanize the TBI experience, while simultaneously helping those individuals who survive TBI to realize that their futures still remain on the horizon despite their adversity, as long as they are willing to try.” You can read some of Katherine’s writing about TBI on the web sites of DePaul University (http://www.depaul.edu/~djolliff/kimes.html), the George Washington University’s Disability Support Services (http://gwired.gwu.edu/dss/index.gw/Site_ID/32/Page_ID/12090/), and the HEATH Resource Information Center (www.heath.gwu.edu ).
   
2. Tamra Burnette was working as a supervisor for a day care center for young children when she first entered the M.A. program in Transition Special Education: Emphasis in Acquired Brain Injury in the Spring of 2003, and had been interested in brain injury for many years. Recently she began working as a Case Manager for Brain Injury, Inc. in Northern Virginia working with young adults to transition them to adult services (http://www.braininjurysvcs.org ) Tamra’s future goals are to continue her work in case management and eventually to do consulting with families of youth and young adults with brain injuries who are transitioning from high school to adult life.
   
3. Jennifer Noel Reyes began the M.A. program in Transition Special Education: Emphasis in Acquired Brain Injury in fall 2001 with the goal of becoming a teacher and helping students with brain injuries like her sister who had sustained a traumatic brain injury. Along the way, however, she re-discovered a long held desire to be a physician. Therefore, she successfully completed her internship at Mt. Vernon Rehabilitation Hospital to learn more about the professional work of the rehabilitation team in a medical setting. Jennifer graduated in the summer of 2003 and is currently attending Columbia University’s pre-medicine with the intention of attending medical school in one year. Her goals are to use her multiple personal and academic backgrounds and experiences to assist people and their families in understanding how brain injury can impact an individual’s education and lifelong learning.