Advancing Wheelchair Technologies 
Old Life, New Life - Human Metamorphosis
I was born in Oklahoma, but spent most of my childhood in Austria, and then moved back to the US when I was 16. In the Fall of 1995 I was a senior at East Stroudsburg high school in PA, and I was having the time of my life. Our soccer team won the conference championship and I was named to the Allstar team. I was having another high honors semester, and I had been accepted to the Florida Institute of Technology with an academic scholarship to study marine biology.
Stunt Changes Life
At the same time I was into extreme sports, skateboarding and skiing any chance I could. Unfortunately it would be this hunger for adrenalin that would cost me dearly.
A few days after New Years 1996 I decided to find out if I could do a forward flip into the snow from my 15 ft. high deck. Well, it didn't go as planned...
I landed straight on my head instead of my feet, which shattered my fourth cervical vertebra, leaving me paralyzed from the shoulders down - a condition somewhat less severe than Christopher Reeve suffered 8 months prior. In fact, early on in the shock trauma unit I got to know Christopher Reeve so to speak, with an assistive lung-training device specially built for and used by him.
A New Perspective
I spent the next three months in the hospital just trying to survive, but eventually I got well enough to go home and start a new life. 
I decided I would not hide away from society, instead I would try to live as normal a life as possible, which at the time meant going to the Senior Prom, attending the Honors Awards Ceremony, and of course Graduation. Successfully making it through these three events would prepare me for what was to come.
You Can Accomplish Anything
One year after my accident I decided that I had to go to college, because I knew that I was capable of more than living off of welfare checks. I enrolled in a medium size University in the same town as my high school, with a renewed commitment to excellence. Inspired by Stephen Hawking I decided to study astronomy, and after three semesters adjusting to school in this new condition I got the opportunity of a lifetime. In the summer of 1998 I was accepted as an intern at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville AL, where I worked in the Microgravity department. The internship was sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), to give students with disabilities the opportunity to work in high-tech environments.
Apparently, I did something right that summer, because I was invited back for a second internship with NASA during the summer of 1999, this time at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt MD. Building on the previous year's experience I managed to win the Rashaan Jackson award for best presentation of the year among interns, consequently opening the doors to a co-op starting in the summer of 2000.
After completing my BS in Astronomy at the University of Maryland-College Park, I was awarded the Chancellor's Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, and am now about one year of research away from receiving my Ph.D in astronomy . Since my research, which involves supernova explosions, is closely tied to the X-ray division of the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics (LHEA) at NASA/Goddard, I am able to continue to contribute to NASA at the same time as pursuing my degree.
Time to Give Back
While it is very important to keep your personal goals in mind, and I know I've set mine pretty high, I learned early on that what you do along the way is important too.
That's why I've started speaking out for disability rights. On the 10th anniversary of the signing of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) I was invited to give testimony before the U.S. Senate H.E.L.P committee, with regards to the effectiveness of the laws in place, their shortcomings, and the rule of technology in assisting people with disabilities.
My next goal is to expand the LeamanPotential Foundation from a local charity to a national fundraising machine for all those thousands of people, who want to improve their lives, and the lives of those around them, through education.
