Parents: Ralph Scolari and Sandra Scolari

Grade: 12

GPA: 3.774

Favorite subject(s): Art

Extracurricular activities: Digital art and photography

Hobbies/Interests: Travel, Art, skateboarding and biking.

Plans after graduation: Attending the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and creating a small business.

Alana is proudest of: I’m proud of my positive attitude towards life and accomplishments considering various health concerns and a significant visual disability. I defy expectations with my artwork and confidence to travel the world.

Alana makes a contribution by: I make the world a better place by advocating for people with disabilities. I increase awareness everywhere I go including school, stores, travel, products and apps. I hope to continue this into my career choice and life. Currently, I brought this influence into my art by sharing how a visually impaired person views everyday life and showcase tools used for accommodations.

Where Alana sees herself in 10-20 years: After graduating art school I will have opened a successful independent art business. I plan to sell my unique artwork either online or in a shop and may promote other artists as well.

I will also be a consultant and continue to advocate for disabled individuals. As a consultant, I will work on making programs such as photoshop and illustrator more accessible. In addition, I plan to create inventions to make life easier and more accessible for those with visual disabilities. I hope to have patented tools for reading labels on packaging or playing games such as card or board games easier within 20 years.

Through research and experiences, there aren’t a variety of games that are accommodating to visually disabled people. Most popular games from our childhood, such as Clue, Battleship and The Game of Life, are not easy or impossible for us to play. I plan to work with those companies to make them more enjoyable for all people.

What concerns Alana in the world: The world issue that concerns me most is complete inclusion for disabled persons and practical awareness. As a person with a visual disability, it’s a challenge to navigate obstacles I come across in everyday life.

Although I have a visual disability, I have empathy for other disabled people and understand the needs they might have as well. There are many daily activities that people do that are hard for a disabled person without considerable pre-planning.

Some common obstacles that I experience in everyday life include difficulty detecting occupied and vacant colored bathroom door signs, stairs without contrast, small letter font on paper or digital programs, and not clear contrast between lettering on signs, products or walkways.

It can be challenging for the masses without a disability to have awareness or know how to accommodate disabled people when it’s not part of their everyday life. A change will likely happen only with clear communication and desire for society to be all inclusive. I plan to be a voice for this change.

Favorite thing about Lake Orion High School: My favorite thing about Lake Orion High School is how kind, aware and accommodating many people have been to me.

Growing up as a person with a visual disability, it hasn’t always been easy to properly accommodate my visual needs in school. Each year in elementary and middle school was a struggle to keep up with classmates as my expected accommodation or enlarged books, papers and materials were consistently late or omitted completely. This created a stressful situation for me, created undue pressure on me and my grades.

I found it hard to excel in school without the proper support I needed, however, I learned how to use my voice, plan, and advocate for myself. I expected and prepared myself for the same repetitive challenges in high school.

However, I was pleasantly surprised within my first week at Lake Orion High School. I was immediately greeted by a team of adults to assist me and the other kids with disabilities. They took genuine interest in my vision and how to make certain I was getting what I needed to succeed. I immediately had the enlarged papers in all my classes and other modifications when requested.

When I showed interest in jewelry making, although some doubt surfaced, accommodations were made and I succeeded, not only with Jewelry 1, but 2 and 3. Many teachers and my para have done everything in their capabilities to make accommodations for my success.

I am excited for college and appreciate how Lake Orion High School helped prepare me for this next chapter of my life.

Recommending Teacher: Rebecca Stormer