Two-time Council Scholarship recipient Jayquan Jaeger began his tenure at UW-Madison with a bit of a head start, having already completed most of his general education credits in high school. That allowed the sophomore to focus on his main areas of study: theater and music. “My first year in college was wonderful!” Jayquan says. “All of my classes went great, all my instructors were nice and accommodating, and I met probably hundreds of new people and made dozens of new friends.”
Jayquan certainly stayed busy in his first year at the university. Whether he’s acting on stage or helping to build sets, he says that he’s fallen in love with all aspects of theater production. “I didn’t get to play many team sports as a kid, so having something where we are all working together towards the common goal of putting on a good show has been great!”
While both acting and set design have their challenges for a student with low vision, Jayquan says that neither pose enough problems to keep him away. Being unable to see a sewing needle, he may struggle with costume design, but he’s found his stride building complex sets. When he’s rehearsing a dance sequence and struggling with the choreography, Jayquan says he talks with the director and choreographer one-on-one to work out any aspects he may not be able to pick up visually.
When Jayquan first started at UW-Madison, he originally intended to study both theater and astrophysics. But as the semester progressed, he decided to focus all of his energy on theater, at least for the moment. Jayquan says that once he finishes his theater degree, he intends to go back to school to pursue astrophysics. “I understood all of the chemistry and biology, but calculus was holding me up,” Jayquan says. “I kept getting lost in equations, and I couldn’t see where I had gone wrong. I realized that the amount of time I would need to put into it would take me away from my other studies.”
That’s not to say that Jayquan isn’t learning important skills that will help him after he’s received his first degree. With hours of theater rehearsal every week on top of a packed course load, Jayquan says he’s quickly had to learn how to effectively manage his time to ace both his classes and his roles on stage.
With his first year under his belt, Jayquan has one piece of advice for new college students with vision loss: Find your friends! Whether it’s helping you catch things in class you might have missed, helping you find your way around campus, or playing spikeball, he says that his friends are important for many reasons. At the UW-Madison McBurney Disability Resource Center, there is a Disability Cultural Center that Jayquan says can be a great resource for meeting people who have similar lived experiences.
Jayquan says the Council Scholarship will again go towards his housing this year. His tuition has been covered by the school’s PEOPLE program, which encourages students of color and low-income students to get a college degree, but that program doesn’t cover housing. Thanks to the Council Scholarship, Jayquan says that he’s able to cover his housing and get the full college experience.
The Council has been awarding scholarships to postsecondary students who are blind or low vision for decades. We begin accepting applications for Council scholarships in the spring, and award them to students in the summer. You can find more information on our scholarship program at WCBlind.org/Events/Scholarships.
