T
Starting Over:
What One Teacher
Has Learned By Wendy Greenberg
In the summer of 1985, Jyh-Hann “John” Chang couldn’t wait to begin his freshman year at Ursinus. The hit summer movie was Back to the Future, and young Chang contemplated his own future. One decision the star high school wrestler made was to forgo wrestling to focus only on pre-medical studies, so great was his desire to practice medicine. His freshman year was everything he hoped it would be. The next summer, a week before his sophomore year began, the athletic Chang tried surfing in Ocean City, Md. A powerful wave crashed over him and the fall broke his neck. His world crashed in, too.
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rying to get back to the life he knew was not possible, he would learn. But Chang, who did eventually return to Ursinus and graduate, has, in some ways, surpassed that life. Professor Chang, fully confined to a wheelchair and assisted by two student aides, returned to visit Ursinus this spring. He noticed right away how easy it is to move around campus in his wheelchair. As a student, his classes had to be on the first floors of buildings because most of them had no elevators. There were no automated doors. To enable him to attend the 1990 Baccalaureate service, a small lift was attached on the back of Bomberger Hall. While he never did attend medical school, he earned a Ph.D. in psychology and today is on the faculty at East Stroudsburg University. What Chang has surmounted during the years since his accident have taught him that isolation from interpersonal relations can be more limiting than a physical disability itself. Like the butterflies he collects, he has evolved into a different and stronger version of himself. After the accident Chang spent five months in the University of Maryland Trauma Center and Jefferson Hospital, and five months at his parents’ home in Walnutport, Pa. He had expected to return to Ursinus, but the administration refused, saying the campus was not prepared to handle a tetraplegic student who needed extensive assistance. He cringes recalling the reaction of his parents who were devastated and scared. “It was one of the first times I had seen my father cry,” says Chang. After repeated requests and some intervention by faculty and staff, especially the college Chaplain, the administration relented. “They said that if I couldn’t handle it, I would [have to] move on,” says Chang. Former College Chaplain Scott Landis, now pastor of Mission Hills United Church of Christ in San Diego, Calif., helped him to handle the transition. “As college chaplain I saw this as a justice and pastoral care issue and insisted we give it a try,” Landis recalls. “When John returned, I have to
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