Mary Rogers

Mary Rogers is a student in the University Without Wall program who expects to finish her undergraduate degree in May. She is an avid novel-reader and this past winter she took skating lessons. Next year she plans to go to UMass Boston for a graduate degree in rehabilitation counseling. None of this would be surprising, except that Rogers is blind.

At 28, with a job as a nurse, she learned that she had glaucoma. Ten years and 25 operations later, she was no longer able to work in her chosen profession. Now 49, she is getting herself ready for a new professional life. She hopes to work with other blind people, to help them advance their educations and professional lives. In an interview with the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Rogers quoted Helen Keller: “Live is a daring adventure, or nothing at all.”

Last June, Rogers received a $2,500 grant from the American Foundation for the Blind to teach Braille to other students at UMass. The Rudolph Dillman Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to students who are legally blind, and who are studying rehabilitation or educational skills for visually impaired people.