By Currents News and Jessica Meditz
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — As the auditorium filled with cheers, Jessica Huang stood from her wheelchair, steadied her walker, and took her first steps across the stage at Kings Theatre — each one a quiet triumph.
Feelings of surrealness, strength, and resilience consumed her as she took those steps on her graduation day from St. Francis College on May 16.
Huang was born with cerebral palsy. While she is able to walk on a limited basis with assistance, she mainly uses a wheelchair to get around.
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With the help of her physical therapy team at Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Health, Huang surprised her family by walking across the stage at Kings Theatre to accept her diploma and shake the dean’s hand.
“I feel ready to show off all my hard work,” Huang said. “I felt that after an amazing journey in college, it would be a nice moment. I’ve been walking with assistance, to some extent, all my life. But for this presentation, I wanted to do it as secretively and as independently as possible.”
Achieving this goal is two years and 144 physical therapy sessions in the making — and it was no easy feat.
“I’ve never walked in really big crowds. There’s a lot of noise, and then letting go of my walker to get my diploma and shake people’s hands requires a lot of balance and strength,” Huang said. “It was no longer just the act of walking and picking up my feet — it involved a lot of coordination, which doesn’t come second nature to people with cerebral palsy.”
Physical therapists Cassandra Ruff (left) and Katie Knote (right) assisted Jessica Huang in achieving her goal of walking across the stage on her graduation day. (Photo: Jessica Meditz)
Tools like a robotic-assisted treadmill, aquatic therapy, and hundreds of hours of physical therapy helped Huang reach her goal, her physical therapist Katie Knote said.
Knote has supported Huang for several years through physical therapy and said that the opportunity to help her walk across the stage brings her immense joy.
“It’s been such a pleasure to see her grow up,” Knote said.
“Jessica is by far one of the most unique patients that I have in the sense that she has grown into such a strong advocate for herself and a voice for the entire community of people with disabilities,” she added. “I think she serves as a role model, not just for her peers and other patients with disabilities, but also for therapists and how we can better work with these patients to help them achieve their goals.”
A successful psychology major, graduating with a 3.93 GPA, Huang has plans to pursue a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in health policy and medicine at the CUNY School of Public Health & Health Policy. She said she feels inspired to help young adults transition from pediatric to adult healthcare, as she has.
While Huang isn’t Catholic, she said she’s thrived in the faith-based environment at St. Francis College.
“Going to a Catholic school, I felt from day one that everyone has been welcoming and compassionate,” she said. “I was not used to people running and opening the door for me.
“The other thing is that it’s a small school, so there really is a sense of community.”
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Tim Cecere, president of St. Francis College, credits Huang as being one of the first to break the barrier to move through the college each day, just like every other student.
During her time as a student, she met with him regularly about ways to make the campus and curriculum more inclusive for everyone.
Cecere said that Huang symbolizes “everything that is Franciscan.”
“When Jessica is around campus … we actually see in real time, in real life, what it means to be Franciscan, what it means to achieve, what it means to overcome obstacles, what it means to always have a smile on your face, to be conscious of the way you affect others, and how you inspire others,” he said. “She’s just a genuine soul. We’re so happy to have her on campus.”
Huang said she hopes others will never underestimate those with disabilities and open their minds to learn more about their experiences.
“You can do anything you put your mind to,” she said. “It’s been an amazing journey in college, and I’m really glad to be able to be succeeding, not only physically, but educationally, and moving on to this next chapter.”
The auditorium of Kings Theatre erupted with cheers as Jessica Huang walked across the stage. (Photo: St. Francis College)