<p>I found these two stories quite compelling and hope you do too.</p>
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<p>Two graduating seniors have converted difficult life experiences into professional and athletic successes, as one initiates a career in engineering and another prepares for the 2008 Paralympics.</p>
<p>Penny Robinson, Aberdeen Proving Ground engineer and mother of two</p>
<p>Even with two children, Penny Robinson said she never questioned whether she’d go to college. The 23-year-old engineer now works at Aberdeen Proving Ground.</p>
<p>Penny Robinson gave birth to her first child when she was just 16 and her second child at 19. Now, four years later, the 23-year-old has received a diploma in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins. As part of a dual-degree program with the College of Notre Dame, she has also earned a bachelor’s degree in physics with a minor in mathematics.</p>
<p>Robinson finished her degree work at Johns Hopkins in December and has since been working for the Fire Control Division of the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground.</p>
<p>Robinson admitted it was a challenge going to school with two young children, but she said she has never questioned her decision.</p>
<p>“I just did it,” she said. “I just took one day at a time and realized it shouldn’t affect my dreams and what I wanted to do.”</p>
<p>While a student, Robinson worked part time and received financial aid from an organization called Family Care Solutions, which helps low-income mothers pay for child care. She said she had to budget her time carefully, since she didn’t always have a lot of time to study for class.</p>
<p>“When I went home, [school] wasn’t the No. 1 priority anymore,” she said. “That’s why I had to manage my time in school, because I knew it wasn’t until late at night that I would be able to work at it again.”</p>
<p>But that hasn’t stopped her from pursuing more education. Robinson is now planning to pursue a master’s degree in engineering while working at Aberdeen Proving Ground, where she is involved in testing the fire control systems in Army vehicles.</p>
<p>Robinson grew up in Baltimore and attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, where she took technical classes such as machine shop and wood shop. These courses sparked her interest in engineering, so that even when she gave birth to her children, Destiny and Dasha, she never questioned whether she’d go to college. “I never had any doubts,” she said.</p>
<p>Now an employed engineer, Robinson looks back with satisfaction on her experiences in college.</p>
<p>“It was well worth it,” she said. “I’m very fortunate to be able to graduate from a school with this prestige.”</p>
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<p>Sofija Korac, who will compete in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, begins law school in the fall to pursue a career in international disability and human rights. Korac, who was born with a disability and has always used crutches and wheelchairs, left Serbia for the United States when she was just 8. Within a year she learned English and became involved with wheelchair basketball and track teams in the Washington, D.C., area. By the time she was 15, she was competing in sports at the national level and has since won more than 20 gold medals, some at the national and international levels.</p>
<p>Now, as a 22-year-old Johns Hopkins graduate, she plans to compete in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing and pursue a career dedicated to international disability and human rights issues.</p>
<p>Korac, whose family lives in Bethesda, Md., said she’s always been interested in international issues, but it wasn’t until she began her studies at Johns Hopkins and took on college internships that she realized she could fuse this passion with her activism in disability rights and her interest in sports. As a result, the international studies major has decided to study disability law.</p>
<p>“I hope to use my law degree to pursue a career in human rights and disability rights in Latin America,” said Korac, who will attend law school at George Washington University.</p>
<p>Korac and her family left Yugoslavia in 1993, when her father, a Byzantine historian, won a fellowship in Washington, D.C. They planned to come for only a year, but her parents decided to stay because of the war in the Balkans and the increased mobility that living in the United States afforded her.</p>
<p>“I actually used to use mainly crutches in Serbia because it was not very accessible,” Korac said, “so moving to the U.S. actually made things easier in a lot of ways because I was able to use my wheelchair.”</p>
<p>Korac has been an active voice on the Homewood campus for wheelchair accessibility and for spreading awareness among her peers, said Susan Boswell, dean of student life.</p>
<p>“She has had a strong impact on accessibility on campus, and she is a wonderful role model,” Boswell said.</p>
<p>Korac was a regular presence in the athletic center, where she trained for weightlifting and track competitions.</p>
<p>When she was a child, she used to dream of competing in the Paralympics, but she thought she’d be there as a basketball player. Then, in high school, she tried weightlifting and in college switched sports permanently. She said weightlifting gave her the freedom to train alone and to work around her college schedule.</p>
<p>“It was a sport I could train in on my own here, with such a great gym,” she said. She works with coaches located in Long Island and Philadelphia and sends them recordings of her performances on a regular basis.</p>
<p>As a high school senior at the Holton-Arms School, Korac had considered attending universities that offered wheelchair sports, but she said that her Johns Hopkins experience has taught her a lot about interacting with people who do not have disabilities. She also hopes she has been able to make an impact.</p>
<p>“It’s taught me a lot being one of a handful of people having disabilities here,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot here, but I hope I’ve also given a lot back to the university.”</p>
<p>Korac’s accomplishments aren’t limited to the athletic and Johns Hopkins communities — she’s also interned at nongovernmental organizations in both Serbia and Washington, D.C., where she conducted research on disability services throughout the world. While working in Serbia for Handicap International, she wrote a report comparing the Americans With Disabilities Act with new Balkan disability legislation, which enabled her to travel to Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo — something few Serbians get to do, she said. She has also interned for the World Bank and for a law firm in Pikesville, Md., specializing in workplace discrimination law.</p>
<p>And if that weren’t enough, she also directed and stage-managed countless student plays for the Barnstormers and Witness Theater.</p>
<p>“Everyone always wants to leave a place and leave part of them or something they’ve learned,” Korac said. “I hope I’ve done that both for the theater community and for the Hopkins community in general.”</p>
<p>Photo: <a href=“http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2007/21may07/21spotli.html[/url]”>http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2007/21may07/21spotli.html</a></p>