Class Year: 2027
Cohort: Healthy Futures
Organization you serve: Suny Oneonta

About me

My name is Chike Okoro, a current student at Suny Oneonta. I am a computer Science major. I am apart of multiple clubs, that being Taekwondo, badminton, fencing, and Dragon Rolls Drumline.

Why I serve

As a child, I was fairly normal. Normal, except for one thing: I had a speech impediment. One day, during the third grade, I came home from school and suddenly started stuttering. I could no longer speak full sentences without stumbling over them or barely being able to pronounce letters. This development made it far harder for me to communicate and express myself to others.

My change in speaking ability had many negative effects upon my life. Firstly, it became harder for me to communicate with others. I couldn’t properly talk to my friends or family without stuttering or tripping over my words. Secondly, it made me lose self confidence, as I knew other people wouldn’t understand me, so why even try to communicate? Third, and most importantly, it affected my schoolwork. It made it harder for me to talk to my teachers and ask any questions. I lost the courage to ask any questions, so I couldn’t communicate with my teachers about any troubles or misunderstandings I had with the work.

Due to these negative effects on my life, my schoolwork and participation had fallen. My teacher noticed this and contacted my parents to get me help. Now, my parents are immigrants to America, so they had no idea what was happening to me and how they could help. This is why when the teacher reached out, offering them a solution, what else could they feel but relief? However, it was quickly filled with worry as they didn’t understand the school help system. The teacher helped them through it though, and constructed an Individual Education Plan for me.

This plan was meant to address my specific needs and personal development: My speech impediment. It consisted of me leaving class during the school day and going to a room with a speech therapist who helped me with speaking fluently. The therapist helped, but there was a problem. My speech impediment had shown up near the end of the year, so once school ended my progress would regress. So when school ended, my therapist recommended that I continue my therapy at St. Johns. My parents agreed, but we would have to pay out of pocket. This therapy was during the week, so it clashed with my moms job. This intersection of priorities caused her stress, so she did something I will be forever grateful for: She quit her job to continue taking me to therapy.

Once summer ended, I returned to the school's therapy program. I had improved dramatically in my speech over the Summer, but I improved even more now. Eventually came my greatest challenge, the state test. I needed a helper to read out the questions for me but I was able to complete the test. And then the results came back and I had done so great that I got a letter from the attorney general at the time, Eric Schneiderman. With this I was able to get into a better speech therapy program in a Catholic school, St. Clare. When I transferred in, I was speaking better than ever. My speech was more fluent and my pronunciation was on point. I was even being used by the teachers to show how the therapy could help you become better at speaking. Eventually, they decided to remove me from the program as I was simply speaking at a highly proficient level, and I could improve no further. The confidence this program gave me allowed me to take part in the Specialized School test, and even pass to get into Brooklyn Latin! From my experience, therapy is an incredibly helpful tool. When I learned that I could help out people who help others like I was, I knew I had to apply to join.

Fun Fact

My favorite hobby is reading. I mostly enjoy reading fantasy books.