People

Spotlight on achievers

Shelley McKinney and Scott Blanks

Winners of Buena Park Noon Lions Club scholarships

Shelley McKinney began her schooling before her first birthday and plans to spend the rest of her life continuing her education, even though she has never heard a word her teachers have said.

McKinney, 19, was born deaf. That disability has not diminished the young Buena Park woman’s ambitions and dreams, however. She begins her freshman year at Golden West College this fall, and with help from an interpreter plans to become a teacher.

One of her classmates at Golden West will be 17-year-old Scott Blanks of Los Alamitos, who, like McKinney, faces a challenge: He was born blind.

The two students, who say they have succeeded in a hearing and sighted society by focusing on their own strengths, were honored for their achievements recently with scholarships from the Buena Park Noon Lions Club.

“If I had had an attitude that I’m different, it would have been harder,” Blanks said. “But it wasn’t.”

Blanks has found his calling in a field where “the ability to listen and to have a good ear was important.” A musician who plays piano, acoustical and electric guitar, he will study to become a recording engineer.

Using a computer, Blanks has also found an outlet for his talent as a writer of both music and prose. For example, he has written music reviews for publication in an arts magazine titled, coincidentally, “Inner Vision.”

“I enjoy listening to music and making it sound the way it does,” he said.

McKinney too has sought and found ways to work around her disability. She is a skilled lip reader, teaching herself when she was barely more than a toddler, her mother said.

“Shelley is such a verbal person, it’s hard to tell she’s deaf,” said Gail McKinney, who began communication and other training for Shelley when her daughter was only 11 months old. She is rewarded, she said, every time someone compliments her daughter on her clear speaking voice.

Shelley McKinney has already made strides toward her career goal. At Irvine’s University High School, her alma mater, she worked as a teaching assistant and immediately felt that she had found her niche.

“Once I started working with the students, I thought, “This is enjoyable!’ ” McKinney said.

McKinney and Blanks both say emphatically that making plans and setting goals are vital for all young people, especially those with disabilities. And within the constraints of rigorous school and training sessions, they say, they find time to nurture their artistic souls.

The students’ courage and determination are apparent, Lions Club members said at the ceremony honoring them.

COMPILED BY LESLEY WRIGHT