inspiring ld article

This article was in today’s paper. Inspiring and thought many would enjoy reading it and passing it on to kids who doubt themselves…

Andy
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OZZIE ROBERTS MAKING IT
Learning disability? No, a grad with a 3.5 GPA

June 8, 2003

Vince Nicholais was the kind of kid who’d always place at least some credence in what folks running schools would tell him.

So when a high school guidance counselor in his New Jersey blue-collar hometown declared: “You aren’t college material,” Vince took the guy to heart.

He resolved to steer away from academics and to hide his major flaw. Vince could barely read.

In building his defense against a condition that stems from a learning disability akin to dyslexia, he became a top-notch wrestler, a hard worker and a wisecracking smart aleck.

But it all combined to lead him to a couple of major life-changing discoveries: He is good college stock. And, like he knows his own name, he now knows when it comes to something positive that you want to do, don’t let anybody talk you out of it. Just go do it.

On the Mesa College campus last November, students met the passage of a $685 million community college bond initiative with thunderous ovations.

That was not only because the measure spells much-needed campus life changes for the future. Nowhere had students shown a stronger united effort in the struggle to educate the public and get the measure noticed on the local political scene.

And among the constant objects of the crowds’ affections was a not-so-tall, tree trunk of an ex-Marine, with leanings more to the west of the political dividing line.

It was Vince Nicholais, 28, the students’ association vice president and member of the student senate.

Through the last eight years – five as a helicopter flight crew chief at Miramar; three as a Mesa student – he learned how to overcome his disability through stick-to-itiveness and effective time management.

He also found that he could effectively motivate and guide others.

“I have the confidence to see myself as a leader – wherever I’m at,” Vince says. “I know I can do anything that I set my mind to. Helping to get (that initiative) passed was a major accomplishment.”

Almost immediately, Vince had seen the measure’s potential for helping students down the line; and doing for others has always been a primary consideration.

Yet it was soon after high school graduation when he recognized the detrimental effect of that high school counselor’s words. It was also when he decided to break the grip they’d formed on his life.

A longtime friend and mentor spoke to him about the friend’s experiences with military service. It all appealed to Vince and he enlisted.

“I’d just gotten tired of feeling like I couldn’t be what I wanted to be,” he recalls.

Once in the Marines, Vince, who earned his associate’s degree at Mesa with a 3.5 grade-point average, acted on fulfilling his long fascination with flight.

As he discovered his leadership abilities, he also found that he has great respect for learning and he’s moved by a deeply seated attraction to economics and finance.

Next year, Vince will enter San Diego State University, pursuing finance as a major and economics as a minor. He also harbors projections of himself, ultimately, with a master’s degree in business from New York University.

Not bad for a kid who started out barely reading and listening even to bunk from insensitive, misguided guidance counselors.

Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.