Jennifer McCallson Response TWO Recipient
As a spirited college cheerleader, back handsprings and back flips were nothing out of the ordinary for Jennifer McCallson. Just 3 weeks after her 20th birthday, however, she collided with a fellow teammate and injured her spinal cord at the 5th cervical vertebrae, which rendered her a quadriplegic. Passion and motivation to continue living a thriving life, regardless of perceived limitations, have enabled Jennifer to return to college, participate with many adaptive sports organizations, and most importantly live independently! Through its Response TWO program, HeadNorth has provided Jennifer with voice recognition software, which has made typing and communicating much easier and more efficient. Due to lack of hand function, this tool has been a tremendous aid in helping Jennifer to continue to be the strong, independent, and thriving woman that she always has been. With her drive to inspire others to live independently, Jennifer is now apart of the HeadNorth mentoring program. Here she is helping others in similar situations to overcome the devastating trauma of a spinal cord injury, and teaching them to thrive again. “Since I was a child I always knew that I would do something huge!” Jennifer explains. “I never imagined it would be defying limitations set by the medical community and society, in order to empower others to do the same with their life. But I’m doing it, and it is awesome!!!”