Raleigh, NC – July 20, 2011 – AmeriGlide, an online retailer of mobility items including stair lifts and vehicle lifts, for the disabled and elderly, is proud to announce the winner of the AmeriGlide Achiever scholarship. After reviewing a number of entries, AmeriGlide has selected Erika Heatherly from Mississippi State University as the Fall 2011 scholarship winner.
"We are very pleased to award Erika Heatherly the AmeriGlide scholarship this year,” said scholarship committee member Cole Watts. "It was a tough choice, because we had hundreds of good essays to pick from, but the moment I spoke with Erika, I knew that we had chosen the right person.”
Erika Heatherly is a senior at the University of Mississippi majoring in Kinesiology with a concentration in clinical exercise physiology. Her winning essay describes her first year at the University of Mississippi’s campus as she fought to find a parking spot and fought terribly designed ramps that were not the least bit helpful to her as a wheelchair user.
“I never realized how challenging being disabled was until I was in a car accident, which resulted in a spinal cord injury,” Erika wrote in her essay. “I never really took the time to look at public places, especially schools, to see what was accessible for someone in a wheelchair. However, I soon learned I faced many challenges each day when I began college after my accident."
To apply for the AmeriGlide Achiever scholarship, applicants were asked to compose an essay response of 500 words or more about the challenges they face at their school as physically-disabled students and the changes they would make to solve those issues. Applicants were asked to pull from their own personal experiences as wheelchair-bound students. The AmeriGlide Achiever Scholarship was started in the spring of 2009 and awards a wheelchair-bound student $1,000 each year. The scholarship contest will be held again next year and a new recipient will be chosen for the fall of 2012.
About AmeriGlide:
AmeriGlide is an online retailer of mobility lifts for the elderly and disabled. Their products include lift chairs, vehicle lifts, and vertical lifts. For more information about AmeriGlide and the AmeriGlide Achiever Scholarship, please visit them online at www.AmeriGlide.com.