Through the eyes of an intern…

As I reflect on my last three months at Challenge Aspen, I can say with confidence, that my time here has been extraordinary! Truth be told, I was a bit nervous to take the leap to move to Aspen, not knowing what to expect, anything about the people I would be working with, and how it would be working so far away from home. However, in hindsight, I would gladly take that leap over and over again. Challenge Aspen has become a second home to me and I am proud to be given the opportunity to work here.

A memorable experience for me includes my first encounter with a student from the Tennessee School for the Blind. He is a college bound high school senior who is blind and has never ever been skiing before! I first met him down at the Mountain Chalet, made small talk, and walked over to pick up our gear (ski’s, boots, helmet etc..). While I was typing in his information to the computer he asked me to hit the windows key on the computer keyboard. I was a bit confused so I asked him to repeat himself. After hitting the windows key he put his ear up to the computer, tugged on my arm, and began a laundry list of stats such as the processor, the modem of the computer, the brand, and what year the computer was made. All of this was detected by simply hearing the motor of the computer. This might have been the most amazing thing I have witnessed. Since that first encounter, he continued to impress me with his vast library-like memory of all things music – song title, artist, album, who produced it and the year it came out. His athletic abilities were severely underrated, but by his last day he was so pumped about skiing independently, and doing a killer job at it, he wanted to videotape himself so he could send it to his mom back home in Kentucky.

This first experience I had will forever be a lasting memory of my time working at Challenge Aspen. There have been so many good memories and extraordinary times where I have been consistently impressed and inspired. I feel so lucky to be here. Being able to work with the Tennessee School for the Blind, CAMO programs, REC programs, local families, families from out of town, Special Olympic time trials, other Challenge Aspen programs, Ski pro’s and the Challenge Aspen staff have made this winter unforgettable!

Written by: Smith, Winter ’14-’15 Adaptive Intern

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