MENTORING
Disability Awareness and Action Working Group
WITH A TWIST
Mentors shared their experiences with coworkers during the inaugural Mentoring with a Twist sponsored by the Disability Awareness and Action Working Group, or DAAWG, at the Operations Support Building II on Aug. 20. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Peers discuss disability, answer questions in ‘speed dating’ format By Frank Ochoa-Gonzales
K
ristin Cummings woke up on Dec. 19, 2012, with two sore ankles. The next day, she started experiencing a burning sensation in her lower back. After dinner that evening, Kristin began losing sensation in her legs. And within an hour, she lost the ability to stand. By the next day, she was paralyzed from the chest down. Kristin spent the next two months in the
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hospital and was eventually diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a rare neuro-immune disorder. Cummings along with 11 other mentors shared their experiences with coworkers during the first Mentoring with a Twist sponsored by the Disability Awareness and Action Working Group, or DAAWG, at the Operations Support Building II on Aug. 20.
Cummings, Kennedy Space Center’s Pathway Intern of the Year, works at the weather office and says she received a lot of positive feedback during the event. “It felt great to spread the world about my situation in such a safe environment,” Cummings said. “It was nice to share my story with so many who wanted to know my story.”