Feature Stories

2007 Heartspring Award for Innovation and Creativity in Special Education

“As part of Heartspring's value creation, we must continue to extol the virtues of innovation and creativity in special education. Finding innovators and celebrating their successes can be a good start, much like the Nobel Prize has done to recognize those who contribute to universal knowledge and understanding,” said Jim Wong, Heartspring Chairman of the Board.

2007 Heartspring Award for Innovation and Creativity
in Special Education Recipients

Ana Jimenez, Ph.D., Janet Baughman, Merry Barua,
Sue Woods, Kholiwe Mkandawire, Jay Cherry

Six extraordinary individuals formed one collective identity over the weekend of July 6-9 as winners of the 2007 Heartspring Award for Innovation and Creativity in Special Education. Each winner shared with the group their program, each varying from the next, including a mentoring club for deaf and hard of hearing students, a reading buddies program, pairing cognitively delayed high school students with first graders, teaching special education students reading and leadership skills, an organization that uses the arts as a medium for helping children with disabilities, a special education classroom focusing on “seeing the glass half full”, an African community where finding a daily meal can be a search for life, and a mother’s struggle in India to find services for her autistic son in a country where autism wasn’t recognized as a word.

Although each program differed, the vision of the group was united– to provide a better understanding of children with special needs to the world and ensuring that resources are available to help children become more independent. The foundation for this plan has been set.

“For the first time, technology is enabling us to transcend geographic boundaries, and to reach millions of people cost-efficiently. However, misunderstanding, malnutrition, and maldistribution of wealth act as our biggest cultural inhibitors to progress. In our global outreach, we'll need to work synergistically with other agencies that can help us remove these barriers. Working collaboratively with these other agencies and philanthropic organizations, our group can work as a nucleus to transform the world,” said Wong.