KATHY MILLAR
Living Assistant
Trekking around the hills and stairs of Pepperdine’s campus to classes, dorms and student activities can be a workout for any student. Physical impairments, ranging from temporarily broken legs to more permanent physical disabilities, add to the challenges of the campus’s steep terrain. The experiences of juniors Jaeyoon Um and psychology professor Dr. Tomas Martinez provide insight into the determination it takes for people to overcome physical challenges on a daily basis.
Junior Jaeyoon Um has walked with crutches and worn braces on her legs since childhood. Um, nicknamed Jae by her friends, grew up in Korea and endured nine surgeries within the first 12 years of her life. In 7th grade, with her parents’ support, Um came to America so she could get the physical therapy she needed and for educational opportunities. She arrived in Boston when she was 13, where she attended Christian schools. The cold weather was bad for her joints, so she chose to head to California for college.
Upon arriving at Pepperdine, the sunny skies and warm beaches provided the perfect solution to her weather woes, but the mountainous setting posed a dilemma. The terrain of the campus made it difficult for her to walk. Plus, she was placed in Dorm 5, located on a hill. To make matters worse, her freshman seminar was held in the CCB, so she had to call Public Safety for a ride.
Um said it was her faith in God that strengthened her and helped her persevere throughout that initial frustration.
“I love God, and whenever I would feel that way, he would show me through a situation, or through other people, that he put me here for a reason.” Um continued, “I took everything from impossible to possible.”
While adjusting to Pepperdine, Um said she told herself, “I know I’m going to find my group of friends, and I know they are going to love me whether I have braces on my legs or whether I have braces on my teeth.”
She was right, a fact that is illustrated daily by the numerous friends that surround Jae or call out a “hello” from across the quad. Throughout her three years at Pepperdine, Um has volunteered regularly, participated with Campus Ministries and joined a sorority. This year she is an RA in Dorm 1.
When Um graduates, she said she wants to influence people in a positive way, by combining her major in psychology with her interest in fashion.
“I want to help women who have body image issues,” she said, “by opening myself to them, and saying ‘Look, I’m not a perfect person, and I’m not a model. But I can help you look and feel beautiful.’”
Um summed up her life philosophy as an overriding faith in God and a quest for purpose.
“I am a really optimistic person, and I hate being depressed. I try to push myself upward and only see the good side. It’s still difficult, but this who I am and this is how God built me. There has to be a reason, and there has to be a purpose.”
Dr. Tomas Martinez has found his purpose in his 27 years as a Psychology professor at Pepperdine, despite similar challenges he has faced as a polio survivor. Polio is a major viral disease that affects the neurological system, and it was spread in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. Martinez contracted polio in 1950, when he was 1 year old and about a year before the implementation of the Salk vaccine that slowed and eventually halted the threat of polio epidemic in the United States.
“Many people became ill, and many people died. I was one of the few people to survive this epidemic,” Martinez said.
Martinez was isolated and quarantined as a child, because little was known about how the disease was transmitted. He also underwent many difficult medical procedures.
“I spent probably four or five years of my childhood in a hospital, and I underwent about 24 different surgeries, primarily to help me walk,” he said. Now, Martinez has a brace on his leg and uses forearm crutches to walk.
Martinez said his parents raised him as a normal child, which helped him overcome his struggles.
“There were different times when I was accepted, and other times, people would look at me and make fun of me,” Martinez said. “So, you kind of learn to deal with it. My parents taught me love and faith and to accept my legs.”
In addition, Martinez said that as a child he became captivated by books, which allowed him to escape and simultaneously experience the world.
The medical advances that have been made over the years have helped Martinez, although he says they haven’t always been easy to integrate into his life.
“I learned to walk four or five different times,” he said.
He has become successful in his career and personal goals, largely because of how he has cultivated his perspective.
“I have always looked beyond the barriers, whether it was physical, academic or personal, and to take on those challenges,” Martinez said.
Over the nearly three decades he has spent at Pepperdine, Martinez has witnessed the university make great strides in accommodating the disabled population. Pepperdine’s Disability Services Office offers accommodations for any Pepperdine student with a documented disability, including psychological, medical and mobility disabilities. In some circumstances, the DSO provides accommodations for students with temporary impairments.
There are services for temporary disabilities, such as note takers for people with broken arms and other services like a software program that scans textbooks into auditory material for the visually impaired. There are also handicap ramps, parking accommodations and wheelchair lifts around campus. However, Martinez said the university still has room for improvement since there are still several areas that are hard to get around.
Dr. Jeff Banks is working to educate his students on what Martinez is talking about.
On Jan. 25, students in Banks’ Social Action And Justice Colloquium (SAAJ) had to alter their own routines for a day. Banks assigned a disability experience to each student in the class. Students wore blindfolds, earplugs, crutches and arm slings from the time they woke up until the end of the day.
Banks uses the experiment each year to illustrate what its like to deal with a disability as well as the social implications that often come with it.
“A disability can happen to you if you’re rich or if you’re poor. It can happen to you if you’re young or it can happen to you if you’re old,” Banks said. “A disability can be something you’re born with, or it could happen to you tomorrow, in a traffic accident, where you’re paralyzed for the rest of you’re life.”
He added that it’s important to treat people with physical impairments with dignity, and to know it’s OK to ask questions.
Students with special needs also speak to his classes, and Professor Banks encourages students with disabilities to tell their peers about their experiences.
“It means so much more than looking at a video. Especially if it’s a student, then my students can relate to them better than they can relate to anyone else.”
02-02-2006
