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Art major focuses on those with disabilities

Senior Ioanna Philippou
2:44 p.m., Feb. 28, 2006--It's not unheard-of for college students to change plans wildly--even at severe penalties to credit hours and extracurricular activities. What is unusual, however, is getting that urge, making the wholehearted change, and then backtracking to fit it into the original plan.

Ioanna Philippou, a senior majoring in visual communications and illustration, carved just such a path for herself when she took a health and exercise sciences survey course last semester. And while that bout of curiosity cost her on several levels, she said it also brought her the greatest rewards in her entire college career.

“The course that I took as an elective involved working with children with disabilities in a physically active environment,” Philippou said, “so it was a real challenge for me.”

Though no stranger to creative scheduling in her four years at UD, the native of Cyprus said another challenge was securing a spot on the roster. But, after appealing to Stephen C. Goodwin, associate professor of health and exercise sciences, Philippou's boldness paid off yet again, and she quickly hit her stride.

“I wanted to take the course as an elective, but found out I wasn't allowed to, because it wasn't in my major and was only open to health and exercise sciences students,” Philippou said. “I think it worked out best for me, though, because by wanting so much to get in, I worked especially hard.”

Besides devoting most of one day each week to working with her assigned student, a nine-year-old girl with developmental disabilities, Philippou also made a semester-long art project out of her experience, chronicling every stage in her mentorship with illustrations, photographs, collages and text.

“A purpose of the 'Survey in Adapted Physical Education' course is to help students become more comfortable working with people with disabilities in a physically active environment, and to recognize that individuals are defined by their abilities and not their disabilities,” Goodwin said.

“Students also end up learning a great deal about themselves and life in general through their work outside the classroom,” he said, “which are lessons that only hands-on mentoring can teach.”

For Philippou, who said that she felt a little scared by the challenge of bonding with a disabled child, that was certainly true.

“I was really scared at first by the challenge and responsibility, but I learned that things that scare me always make me stronger,” she said.

“I went into the class wanting to see what it was like to step outside myself, and I found that it was the most beneficial class I've taken in the entire four years I've been at UD. That's because it gives you a different perspective and teaches you to appreciate the things that you have.”

Now hoping to apply what she learned in Goodwin's course to her career, Philippou is researching a three-month position teaching art and English in a Nepalese orphanage after graduation. Art therapy also is an option further down the road, she said, as is working for the United Nations Children's Fund agency (UNICEF) as a graphic designer.

“I miss home too much to stay in America, even though there are more job opportunities over here,” Philippou said, “and there is a branch of UNICEF in Cyprus that might be hiring. But where I go to work after graduation really will depend on the need. I want to work in a place that has suffered, because I think that creating bonds with others--especially others who have special needs--is the most challenging and important work I can do.”

Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

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