Think Alive Foundation

Current funding for the disabled is almost exclusively scholarships. Sponsored by specific advocacy groups honoring one particular disability, these are usually geographic specific and tend to aid the most visible disabilities: deafness, blindness, and severe physical impairments. For instance, the GuildScholar Award, awarded by the Jewish Guild for the Blind, is limited to blind Jewish young adults in college. Another scholarship, awarded by the Children’s Hemiphelagia and Stroke Association, is limited to those with cerebral palsy 25 years of age and under. Why should somebody who lives in the wrong state or isn’t disabled enough be omitted? Think Alive is a unique opportunity to promote the disabled minority as a whole, and not just one particular disability. Non-exclusive in nature, any disability is an acceptable pre-requisite. While any funding is helpful for disabled adolescents, specific scholarships are not the best way to help the population. Even with a chance to attend university and obtain an education, social barriers often still exists between the “able-bodied world” and those who are disabled. The Think Alive Foundation is the only goal-based disability grant in the United States. Through goal-setting and the process of achievement, adolescents will become more confident that they can succeed. In my experiences as a disabled individual, people have generally viewed me as I viewed myself: only when I felt confident that I could outplay them on the court or perhaps outthink them in the class did my peers give me the respect I desired. Dedication and its corresponding achievement enabled me to discover this quiet confidence and apply it in all aspects of their life—academic, athletic, socially, and otherwise. By offering Achievement Grants to disabled adolescents, inspiring them to achieve, Think Alive can help instill the confidence and fearlessness needed for such success in all aspects of life, and not just the academic arena.