TCNJ

34 The College of New Jersey Magazine JERRY PETROFF Education Families come from hundreds of miles away to see him. Professor Petroff didn't just teach about people with differing abilities, he immersed us in disability culture and taught us to be compassionate and understanding — not to pity. While on a graduate seminar in Ghana with Petroff, I knew that what I did would be used in his research about perceptions of disability there, but I didn't know the influence the trip would have on me. I interviewed mothers of children with autism and other complex disabilities — women who were told that their children were cursed or that the devil was inside of them. They were lost and scared. Some families came from hundreds of miles away just to have a chance to see Petroff, an advocate and a support system for people who needed answers and love. He always will be one of my role models. — Abigail Anker '17, MAT '18 KIM PEARSON Journalism One of her assignments led me to launch a nonprofit. Professor Pearson made students create websites with their résumé and clips. Mine (which was — embarrassingly to me now — pink, with flowers) featured my journalistic role models: Dana Canedy, Katherine Graham, and Anna Quindlen. Canedy, the Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist, heard about it, emailed me, and asked me if I would like to shadow her for a day. Imagine the 20-year-old me who dreamed of writing for the Times. This was my idea of heaven, and it became one of the most amazing days of my student life. My senior year I wrote about philanthropy work in Liberia. I realized how serious an issue girls' lack of access to education worldwide is, and that led to the creation of my New York City–based nonprofit, She's the First, which fights gender inequality through education. These stories, as profound as they have been in my life, are drops in the bucket compared to Pearson's impact at TCNJ. — Tammy Tibbetts '07 " These stories are drops in the bucket compared to Pearson's impact at TCNJ."

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