Glenbard West paralympic athlete wins Foot Locker scholarship
Ahalya Lettenberger is a paralympic swimmer training for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, but her accomplishments go way beyond the pool.
She's excelled at Glenbard West High School with a 5.0 GPA and a near-perfect score of 35 on the ACT exam.
And she's a role model, a student athlete who visits elementary and middle schools to show kids about what it means to live and compete with a disability. Last month, she was one of the featured speakers at Glen Crest Middle School's first disability awareness week.
For all those reasons and more, Lettenberger has received a $20,000 scholarship through the Foot Locker Scholar Athletes Program, an elite recognition awarded to only 20 students nationwide each year.
The Glenbard West senior was born with arthrogryposis, a musculoskeletal condition, and uses a wheelchair.
"I love the freedom the water gives me," she told the Daily Herald in 2016. "When I'm in the water it's just like I'm like everybody else."
But when she's in the water on an international stage, Lettenberger is swimming faster than everybody else.
She was a silver and bronze medalist in the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships and competed in both the 2017 and 2018 Para Triathlon.
As a member of the U.S. Paralympic Swimming National A Team and Team USA Para Triathletes, she's also training in triathlon for the 2020 Paralympic Games.
After school last week, Lettenberger was surprised with the scholarship through the Foot Locker Foundation. The scholarship winners were selected from a pool of more than 13,000 applicants.
Where is she headed for college? Lettenberger is considering Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Rice.
She hopes to become a biomedical engineer to develop assistive technology for kids and adults with disabilities.