Winner of the Spring 2025 Perseverance Scholarship

Amanda Malawski

In her essay, Amanda reflects on how her disability taught her to embrace resilience. Through her experiences in an adaptive sports group, she learned to accept her disability and embrace her authentic self unapologetically. Her resilience has inspired her to become a lawyer so she can create a more accessible world. Congratulations, Amanda, and we look forward to all you will accomplish!

Read Amanda’s essay here:

Resilience. A ten-letter word combined with three syllables and many meanings. A word that grew synonymous with my life and a word that I hated for as long as I can remember. Sure, everyone goes through resilient times in their life, but to me, it felt like I was the poster child for the word resilience. If you looked up the word resilience in the dictionary, my name and picture would be underneath it. Resilience comes with life lessons and as I grew up, I was tired of the many, many life lessons I had to go through, but now I realize that it’s made me who I am.

I blame it on the way that I came into this world, a screaming and crying 11 weeks too early, baby. I weighed a whopping three pounds and three ounces. Destiny, fate, or what have you, made me resilient just seconds after I was born. I had to fight to live, to grow, and to breathe just moments into my life and I’ve been fighting ever since.

Growing up in a community where you could count the number of disabled people you interacted with on one hand was tough, but at least I had my brother. Not only had my parents had one disabled kid, but two. He had come into the world just 45 minutes after me. Our lives were interwoven in our mother’s womb, but it had only solidified when we were born.

We were resilient together. We stayed side by side in the NICU for 38 days and went through countless therapies so that we could succeed. It was only when we started school that I started to notice that I was different.

I was stared at and made fun of for the brace I wore on my leg. I was teased for the way I walked. It was hard. I often came home from school crying because I hated that I was treated differently because of something out of my control. I didn’t want to wear a brace or miss class because I was in therapy. I wanted to be like everyone else.

Everything changed when I turned nine. My mom had found a sports organization for kids with disabilities. I was introduced to the world of adaptive sports and a community of kids just like me! I wasn’t different anymore. I was surrounded by people who were like me. I wasn’t stared at for the way I walked or the brace I wore on my leg. I found a community where I could be unapologetically myself.

Adaptive sports became my safe place. I was encouraged to be myself and not be ashamed of my disability. I had come to accept that my disability was a part of me, but it didn’t define who I was.

I had so many opportunities that other kids my age didn’t have because my disability had opened doors for me that I didn’t know I could open. I represented my country in several international Paralympic events. I was an elite athlete who traveled the country and the world competing for Team USA. My disability gave me opportunities I never would have had if I was like everyone else.

I learned to ignore the stares and whispers. I kept my head high. My disability and life experiences taught me to be resilient. People could say what they wanted, but it wouldn’t bother me. I had nothing to be ashamed of.

Resilience can make or break a person. I choose to let it shape me into the person I am every day. I learned that resilience is something to be proud of and not something to hate. It’s the main reason why I decided to go to law school. I want to change the world and make it more accessible to kids like me. I want to show the world that disabled lawyers exist and are meant to be in the legal field.

My disability has molded me into the person that I am today and I wouldn’t be where I am today without the injury I sustained at birth.