Yasaman Mahboubi - A Life Reborn: Canadian Paraplegic Association

Yasaman Mahboubi - A Life Reborn

In the media, disabled women are often depicted uneducated, dependent, conniving and gloomy. My life, however, as a 3rd year electrical engineering UBC student and as a disabled woman speaks of a different experience. My life unexpectedly changed from a second year computer engineering student to a helpless miserable person when I got paralyzed as a result of a tragic car accident at the age of 20. I spent three months at G. F. Strong Rehabilitation Center where the doctors informed me that I will never be able to walk again. However, thanks to my physiotherapist and mostly my parents� encouragement I could achieve what I have always dreamed of. I decided to change my major to electrical engineering with biomedical option, which concerned designing different equipment for people with disability. So far, I have finished all my courses with high marks and have been known as an honor student for my spectacular GPA. Being a quadriplegic, I can not work and study simultaneously. Therefore, this getting this scholarship allows me to take more classes without worrying about my tuition for extra credits.

On my spare time, I regularly attend B.C. Paraplegic Association's and Rick

Hansen foundation peer programs. I�m also a Rick Hansen�s ambassador and every year we raise money for spinal cord research. In addition, I am an active member of BC Wheelchair Sport and I�m a wheelchair racing athlete. I�m a member of BC team and achieved silver medals at 2004 and 2008 BC Summer Games.

Over time, though I tripped and stumbled, I made it. I persevered as much as possible and "climbed" all the steps that I encountered. Although I use a wheelchair I am now as independent as I was before. My life had changed but I took on the tasks willingly and with the people I cared about right behind me the whole way, I made it. On January 2nd, 2002, my life ended only to be reborn. Challenges can be mastered...one just has to believe in oneself to master them!

Yasaman Mahboubi, an electrical engineering student at the University of British Columbia, is the CPA's 2008 Sun Life Financial Peer Support Scholarship recipient.