(Editor's note: Jamie Ryan is a member of the GCEPD)
We have spoken of the unanticipated positive ripple effect that can occur when a person with a disability is part of the workplace. Jamie Ryan's story, below, demonstrates that in spades.
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Two defining years in my lifetime took place in 1977 and 1993.
The former date - when I was 6 - marks my diagnosis with retinitis pigmentosa (RP).
The latter year denotes the start of my employment at St. Johnsbury Academy.
These two milestones, along with my family, have intertwined dramatically to help shape the person I am.
And as a teacher, advisor, Administrator, husband, and father of four, it is my sincerest hope that what has helped shape me in the most positive ways is transferred to those I interact with on a daily basis.
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| Jamie Ryan |
For much of my early career at St. Johnsbury Academy, the impacts of RP did not provide any disruptions in the workplace. However, around the year 2000 it became steadily more difficult to grade papers and my mobility was impacted to some extent. So much of what helps make boarding schools so impactful is the emphasis placed on relationship building. As a teacher I have always tried to get to know my students well enough to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and figure out how to maximize the ability to strengthen both. When I have encountered students with struggles, I have always strived to help them be as resilient as possible. Having limited vision has never impacted my philosophy of education, my desire to bring the best out in students, and my judgment.
Just as my vision began to outwardly show impacts and limit my ability to do things such as coach soccer, a funny thing happened. My goal of trying to maximize the potential of others was reciprocated to me by students and staff alike. The people I worked with showed compassion and pointed to my resilience as a positive. I first became the Assistant Director of Resident Life and then became the Director of Resident Life in 2003.
With a new job and greater responsibilities, the school did an outstanding job of providing me any sort of assistance in the classroom in terms of technology. The Vermont Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired also helped provide hardware and software that provided assistance in a variety of areas to help me scan readings to be read back to me by the computer. These accommodations helped maximize proficiency.
By 2008, my comfort level in speaking to others about the challenges of working with RP coincided with a greater demand by others to talk about how I am able to do things. That year St. Johnsbury Academy chose to feature me in an Alumni News magazine article. In the article I spoke of how my life is defined by my family, my friends, my job, my love of the Boston Red Sox, but not by my visual impairment.
The Headmaster of St. Johnsbury Academy and I have spoken numerous times that my job as an administrator, and especially my role as a classroom teacher, can serve as a model for others with disabilities. Any time being a role model becomes a goal, it produces inherent challenges. However, it is hard to feel that this is a challenge when I work in an environment where relationships are so key to promoting character and growth. Every day I go to work I know that just as many colleagues and students are willing to support me as I am willing to support them.
In an age in which a cell phone can read you e-mails and allow you to send messages through speech, the gap narrows between what a person with limited vision can do and is unable to do. The impact of technological and human support has allowed me to focus on the areas that are vital for success as an Administrator, advisor, and teacher. I hope that each school day affords me the opportunity to provide a good example to students and colleagues of how a disability need not define who you are both personally and professionally. Hope and resilience are always two things I would like to promote with my family and anybody I encounter in my work at St. Johnsbury Academy. I would be remiss if I also did not mention the importance of gratitude. I will use this public forum to sign off with a sincere thank you to my family and St. Johnsbury Academy for their efforts to help me hurdle my disability and other challenges to help me reach new heights of happiness and success.
