Student Spotlight: Maya McLaughlin

Maya McLaughlin's epilepsy awareness tattoo near her right wrist serves as a reminder of what she has overcome during her time on the Onondaga Community College campus. She's discovered her career path and related degree program, and earned membership in school's Phi Theta Kappa honor society. "I never thought I would make it into the honor society because of my epilepsy and my ADHD. But I did the best I could with my disabilities and I made it! No one should let disabilities hold them back. A disability doesn't have to harm your future. A disabled person can do anything anyone else can do."

McLaughlin graduated from Cicero-North Syracuse High School in June 2020 and started taking classes part-time at OCC that fall. "I thought coming here was a better option than going somewhere else and paying a lot of money because I didn't know what I wanted to do."

Her choice proved prophetic when she switched from the Health Information Technology degree program to Human Services after seeing two relatives go through very challenging adoptions. "I decided I wanted to become an adoption caseworker one day. I plan to transfer eventually from here to Keuka College for that degree. I'm so glad there was the ability here to be flexible about changing my degree and not paying more."

Outside class she is one of the leaders of OCC's "Geek Club" and is also very involved with the Northeastern Epilepsy Foundation. And this semester she is a full-time student for the first time. "Epilepsy shouldn't stop me or anyone from succeeding in education. Anybody can do anything as long as they put hard work and dedication into it."