I just received notification that the University of Illinois has awarded me the following fellowship:
http://engineering.illinois.edu/students/graduate/surge/
I count as a "person with disabilities" on that list.
The amazing thing is that I never applied for this fellowship, or even knew about it in advance. What happened is that the graduate admissions person at UIUC contacted my computer science advisor saying that there as a fellowship that I could likely get, and the advisor asked me to come in and sign a form giving Disability Support Services permission to release my records to them. I did that a couple weeks ago and just today I got the e-mail saying it had been awarded. (I don't know how the graduate admissions person knew that I was a "person with disabilities" - I don't recall writing it in my application materials. Probably one of my professors wrote something about it in her recommendation letter - good thing he/she did!)
DEEP PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION: If being "disabled" gives you special opportunities that you wouldn't have had if you weren't "disabled," does it still count as a "disability"?
5 comments:
Wow, it looks like you will get an entire education for absolutely no direct costs. Pretty amazing.
By the way....have you decided if you are going to submit a graduation speech?
Wow. That's a generous fellowship!!
Alex,
Congratulations! And, very well deserved. I wouldn't sweat the disability scholarship. I'm sure they are looking for a way to recruit you and finding a funding source is one aspect. So, have you accepted their offer?
- Uncle Sam
I have decided to accept their offer now. I'm going to turn in the form tomorrow.
wow! it's been a while since I read your blog - sorry it's taken me so long to respond. Congratulations on your decision! How exciting!
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