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news:
Overcoming major
obstacles
By Jamie Rogers
On-line Forty-Niner
It has taken 26
years, countless finals and six colleges for David Queen to
graduate, but this week he will do just that.
Queen's scholastic
career started out promising when he began studying architecture
at the University of Southern California when he was 18 years
old. His time there was cut tragically short when he was thrown
from the passenger's seat of a vehicle, headlong into a tree.
When Queen emerged from a coma six weeks later, he learned
that he had brain damage. His life would never be the same.
"After the
brain surgery, [the doctor] told me, 'your son is going to
live but we don't know what kind of person he is going to
be,'" said Jlenna Queen, David's mother. "When he
came out of the coma, he couldn't speak or feed himself. When
he could start using his hands he still couldn't talk. I still
have notes that David wrote me when he was in intensive care."
As Queen began
to go through rehabilitation, he said doctors were surprised
at the speed in which he healed. However, they still believed
he would not regain his full mental capacity.
"When I left
the hospital, I asked the staff what my academic goals should
be," Queen said. "They said maybe I could get an
associate of the arts degree, but a bachelor's degree was
out of the question. I said 'you're wrong, I am going to get
it.'"
This weekend he
will walk down the aisle, shake the dean's hand and receive
a bachelor's degree in art. He will be finishing his career
with a 2.53 GPA in his major.
It hasn't been
easy for Queen. He has struggled through several different
junior colleges and a program designed to assist people with
traumatic brain injuries in finding work through Coastline
Community College.
"David is
so intelligent, but he has short-term memory problems,"
Jlenna Queen said. "He would have a job, and when he
was with the supervisor he would do beautifully. But when
the supervisor left, David would forget what he had been told
to do."
After that experience,
Queen found a job at the Newport Beach Public Library stacking
books. He has worked there for 11 years while taking one or
two classes at a time. He has been going to Cal State Long
Beach for the past six years.
John Snidecor,
who has been Queen's academic advisor since he came to CSULB,
said he finds David inspiring.
"He is a standout,"
Snidecor said. "He is such a hard working, tenacious
and likeable kind of guy. You see so many students that have
natural talents who don't have disabilities but don't succeed
and that's frustrating. Then you see somebody like David succeed
and it shows you that if you are determined, you can do almost
anything."
After all of these
years of hard work, Queen said that he would like to relax
now. He is going to continue working at the library after
he takes a tour around the South Pacific.
"David is
getting this degree for his self esteem and, just to know
that he reached that goal," his mother said. "He
is a special person. Never once did he ever complain or wonder
'why did this happen to me.' He has a wonderful attitude."
That is the attitude
that has gotten Queen through some of the tougher times, he
said, adding that he would tell people with disabilities to
never give up.
"Starting
off with a challenge and then achieving [the goal] has been
a major reward," he said. "I would like to tell
people to set their own goals and go for them."
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