Blind Student Achieves Success at Mississippi College

Marrisha Jedrzejek is truly an amazing person who refuses to let blindness stand in her way as a Mississippi College student.

That’s something heard quite often from her friends and professors on the Clinton campus.

The 2009 valedictorian at the Mississippi School for the Blind in Jackson, the 21-year-old Pearl resident is a proven achiever at MC. Whether keeping up the pace in a water aerobics course at Alumni Pool or speaking up in a political science class, Marrisha is an inspiration to others.

Over the years, she counts a total of 28 surgeries on her eyes. Her vision has been impaired since birth, but up until her early teen-age years, she could tell if days were sunny or cloudy. Since age 15, “I can’t see anything,” Jedrzejek said.

Every day, the Mississippi College sophomore refuses to let blindness be a roadblock. The plans are for the Rochester, New York native to finish her political science degree in May 2012, attend graduate school and then go to law school.

Every day, Marrisha says her Christian faith helps her cope with any obstacles in her path. “I feel everything happens for a reason,” Jedrzejek said. “God will use me.”

Many at MC see God using her as a role model, a down-to-earth person who never met a stranger at the Christian university or away from school.

“Marrisha is a warm, caring young woman who may be one of the most universally loved students on campus by students and faculty alike,” says political science professor Glenn Antizzo. “Despite her disability, she never uses it as an excuse. Indeed, she works hard and wants to please her teachers.”

This spring, Marrisha is enrolled in his military intervention class and thoroughly enjoys reading about military leaders. “She has been nothing short of enthusiastic in her approach to the subject,” Antizzo said.

Water aquatics instructor Pam Milling is equally impressed with Marrisha’s performance in her physical education classes at Alumni Pool. “She is an exceptional student who is able to participate in the water fitness classes even though she is a student with unique challenges,” Milling says. “Her warm smile shows her genuine enjoyment and brings joy to me, as the instructor, and to the rest of the class.”

Lifeguard Brooke Wilson, who works with a campus public safety officer to escort her in and out of the pool, calls her “amazing” for her ability to do the water exercises every week. But the sophomore nursing student from Biloxi says she’s especially amazed that Marrisha can “listen to somebody’s voice and know who they are.”

Blind college students like Marrisha Jedrzejek are growing in numbers in the Magnolia State and elsewhere. “There are quite a few at community colleges and senior colleges – there are three at Mississippi State and one (recently) graduated from the law school at Ole Miss,” says Sam Gleese, president of the Mississippi chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.

Through many advances in technology, including textbooks now on CD, in addition to Braille, there are more opportunities today for blind students to go to college and professionals schools and move up career ladders, Gleese says. Blind people are in politics, law, education, and many other fields. Nationwide, there are more than 25 million American adults with trouble seeing or are blind and cannot see at all.

Despite being totally blind since 1979, the 1970 Jackson State University alumnus today works full-time as coordinator of the Americans with Disabilities Act for the City of Jackson’s Department of Human and Cultural Services.

For blind people, he says, “the greatest obstacle is to accept the fact that you are blind – you can’t get up and go when you want to,” Gleese says.

Fortunately, medical science and technology, are “both making progress,” the Vicksburg native said.

Educators at the Mississippi School for the Blind say they are delighted to see Jedrzejek doing well at Mississippi College. “Marrisha’s accomplishments are examples of what dedication, hard work and perseverance can accomplish,” said Rosie L.T. Pridgen, superintendent of the Mississippi School for the Blind. “She is also an excellent testimony to the real world: blind persons have tremendous capabilities, just as their sighted peers, give them the same opportunities as you do any person.”

Marrisha, who uses a firm walking stick to guide her steps around the Clinton campus, is extraordinary to her peers because she “can still accomplish everything that we do here,” says MC junior Jamie Nelson of Birmingham.

Off the Clinton campus, the Student Government Association senator remains interested in Mississippi and national politics. Last summer, the Rankin County resident interned at the office of 3^rd District U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper in Pearl. This summer, Marrisha would like to help Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant’s gubernatorial campaign.

But right now, her Mississippi College studies come first with the spring semester ending soon.

Her parents, Christine and Joseph Jedrzejek, Marrisha said, “are very proud of me for going to college.”

For more information on issues facing the blind, contact Sam Gleese at 601.969.3352 or sgleese@city.jackson.ms.us or go to the website of National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, Maryland at www.nfb.org.