University of Illinois Lucks Out: Sandra Says Yes

Sandra Merullo, future Illini.

Sandra lost her sight when she was three and has always attended regular public schools. I met Sandra when she was still in high school – I interviewed her for a Chicago Tribune story exploring how kids who are blind are educated in the public school system. Sandra is a very impressive young woman – she’s bilingual, a great writer, sweet, smart, and funny, too. The thing that impressed me most about Sandra when I first met her, though? Her math skills! From my Tribune article:

In geometry, however, learning can be far more complicated. Using raised line drawings to read graphics, push pens and rubber bands to form angles, and special paper and pens to create diagrams, Sandra is managing a 96% in geometry so far. “My textbook is 63 volumes!” she exclaimed, opening one page of her Braille textbook to demonstrate how big the raised-line drawings can be.

Sandra and I have kept in touch ever since that article came out. We talk a lot about writing – she’s known for years that she wants to be a journalist, and through the magic of talking computers I’ve been able to read quite a few of the many articles and stories she’s had published.

When Sandra wrote that blog post for me in November she was a sophomore at South Suburban College, hoping to transfer to the journalism school at the University of Illinois in Fall. She responds to my blog posts fairly often, and those of you who follow the comments here know that Sandra was nervous about whether or not she’d be accepted. The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign is my alma mater, and I’ve been confident she’d get in – just didn’t know whether she’d say yes when the time came. I mean, c’mon, the girl is so talented, I worried she’d get other offers!

The time came last week. Sandra got her acceptance notice from the University of Illinois. I was the first person she emailed. She said yes. She’ll be starting at U of I in the Fall.

When I wrote her back I asked if she’d be willing to email me a photo of her so I could use it in a blog post announcing the good news. She said, “sure!” and attached a couple of photos. “They were both taken at a wedding in which I was a bride’s maid, and I look sooo pretty (that’s what I hear from my family.)” She ended that last sentence with one of her favorite words: *smile* I did.