College Senior Learns To Walk Again After Paralysis So She Can Cross The Stage At Graduation
"What inspires people is who you become despite what you've been through."
Prostock-studio | Shutterstock Walking across the stage at your graduation ceremony is huge — arguably one of the biggest moments of your life. Most students look forward to that moment in the spotlight when their name is read and they cross the stage.
One college student was told she simply wouldn’t be able to do that. In fact, her advisor encouraged her to put off her graduation altogether. But, the determined young woman made the choice to prove the naysayers wrong and defied the odds to walk across the stage and receive her diploma.
A college senior had to re-learn how to walk after she was paralyzed so she could cross the stage at her commencement ceremony.
Julie Carey of NBC 4 Washington reported on a truly extraordinary student who did not let physical health limitations stop her. According to Carey, Samantha Lewis was one of many who graduated from George Mason University this spring, but she might just be the student who made the biggest impression at the ceremony.
Towards the end of 2024, after a serious surgery and some treatments that followed, Lewis lost feeling in both of her legs. She was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND). She had a long road ahead of her to reach recovery, and her college advisor thought it was probably best for her to take a semester off and delay her graduation.
Lewis wouldn’t hear of it. “I’m going to try to do my best because I can’t give up without trying first,” she told Carey. “And then I was able to apply that mindset to recovery, too.”
Instead of taking time off to allow her body to heal, Lewis pushed herself to recover at the same time she was completing her final semester of college. She enrolled in six courses for the semester with the hope of receiving her psychology degree at the end. According to the College Board, taking four classes in a semester typically qualifies one to be considered a full-time student.
Lewis was able to combine her physical recovery with the completion of her education.
Lewis did physical therapy at Mt. Vernon’s Inova Rehab Center. While she found herself slowly learning how to walk again, she also learned what she needed to know to pass her classes. “In between therapies, it’s not that hard to listen to a lecture,” she stated, displaying her determination and grit.
She shared that she knew she would be able to achieve her goal in April when she aced an exam. “My realization happened when I got a 100 on my math final in the middle of April,” Lewis said.
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She coordinated her graduation plan with her school’s disability services so that she would have the support she needed. As she was still frequently using a wheelchair, she decided to be wheeled up to the stage, where she then stood up and walked across to receive her diploma of her own accord.
“I knew that I worked so hard for this, not just physically, but academically, that I knew I could get across the stage with what we’d been doing with physical therapy,” she explained. When she stood up out of her wheelchair and crossed the stage, she got a huge round of applause and a standing ovation from her fellow graduates.
Many students defy expectations every day by living with disabilities.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 20.5% of undergraduate students reported having a disability in the 2019 - 2020 school year. That’s a significant portion of college students who are able to go against the grain and defy stereotypes in spite of physical challenges.
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It would be easy to think that college is just too difficult for someone who is disabled or that they can’t complete work at the same speed. This isn’t true. Students like Lewis are able to do the seemingly impossible every day.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
