Dean Stewart is a welding student at the Rockfort Human Employment and Resource Training/National Training Agency (HEART/NTA).
Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
A WAVE nouveau tightly curled against his head, Dean Stewart is round faced handsome in a gleaming white shirt the uniform of Rockfort Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) Academy.
He looks like any normal teen who loves and is involved in sport. From the waist up, muscles hint at his love for basketball. However, Dean, born a paraplegic, has no legs.
The student, though, is quick to point out that his life is as normal as anyone else's. "I go to parties, too," he says. And just like everyone else, Dean has a dream. He passionately wants to become a lawyer. In the meantime, however, he has taken up welding.
Dean recently started the 10-month welding programme at Rockfort. There, his welding instructor, Courtney Williams, says that he is doing really well.
"I have had experience with other persons with disabilities. However, Dean's persistence way surpasses my expectations."
Dean, he said, does not want anybody to treat him as disabled.
"On the first day I wanted to adjust the work table for him and he said, "No sir." He said that when he into the work situation no one would be making allowances for him so he wanted the same situation. He has been able to motivate students who have two legs (but who are often less enthusiastic)."
Wants no favouritism
At Rockfort, the school community has rallied to make the experience a good one for Dean, although he wants no favouritism. Students buy his lunch for him, carry his chair when necessary and in others ways try to make life as smooth as possible.
School manager at Rockfort, Marcus Nash, told Outlook, "This is a first for Rockfort.
"We were not totally prepared, but now we have started to put in ramps so that he can get in and out of the workshop. The school is also improving access to the bathroom and canteen areas for the student and others like him who will follow.
"We hope we will have more persons like him coming," the school manager added.
Dean's presence at the training school is largely due to the effort of the Jamaica Paraplegic Association. Pamela Chin, a volunteer at this organisation, said that Dean played on the association's basketball team, but like many others were not involved in the kind of training that would lead to employment.
The 19-year-old, a former student at Papine High School, had not done very well in school before because of the difficulty involved in travelling from his home in Maxfield Park where he lives with mother Angela Reid.
The Paraplegic Association pulled together a number of corporate sponsors who have agreed to underwrite the cost of his travel, breakfast and supper.
Everything is going like clockwork, Mrs. Chin notes. Dean's chauffeur is another paraplegic who runs a taxi service.
Pamela Chin said, "Dean is brave. It is all so inspiring. Dean is one of six children born to mother Angela Reid. His father, Derrick Stewart, died when he was three."
Sister pleased
Older sister Mellissa Powell, a hairdresser, told Outlook that she is pleased that her brother is doing so well. "Dean is a nice boy. Very intelligent. Yesterday I called him and he told me that he is doing well in school. He will turn out well because he has ability. He loves sports too," she said. Although Dean says that welding is not his first priority, he really likes it especially where it involves work with automobiles. "I have to work," he said.
"I hope to get a job but I still want the subjects which will help me to become a lawyer." With his kind of determination, he just might succeed.
