Woman earns MCC special-needs scholarship

McHenry County College named Annemarie Kinney of Johnsburg as the recipient of the spring 2010 Joseph A. Blanco Spirit Award, a $500 award given to a student with special needs who displays a positive attitude working toward the completion of a degree or certificate while overcoming a disability.

Kinney has been a student at MCC since summer 2008 and used several of the accommodations for which she was eligible to earn a cumulative grade-point average of 3.46. She had planned to transfer in the fall 2009 to Loras College in Iowa to pursue a degree in teaching, but in the spring 2009, she was involved in a serious automobile accident that kept her in the hospital for weeks. She was unable to leave for college in the fall, but successfully completed three MCC online courses and a course by independent study while recovering from her injuries. She will attend Loras College this fall.

"She is very serious about her education and has done extremely well here at MCC," said Bev Albright, coordinator of Special Needs at MCC. "Annemarie has an incredibly tenacious attitude toward her recovery and her school work. She continues to push herself each day through her physical therapy and her class work - She truly embodies the "spirit" of the Special Needs Department, where we focus on ability, not disability."

Joseph "Joe" Blanco, a Special Needs Department tutor, founded the award in 2009 as a way to recognize students for their hard work and can-do attitude despite their disabilities.