Smith Excels Despite Injuries
By Dariush Shafa, Messenger-Inquirer
Published: Sunday, April 11, 2010
Four years ago, Jessica Smith crashed her car on her way from Owensboro to Penrod in Muhlenberg County, leaving her wondering whether she’d ever walk again, let alone finish school on time.
Today, Smith is a senior at Kentucky Wesleyan College, on track to graduate on time and already accepted to graduate school.
She plans to attend the McWhorter School of Pharmacy at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
During the past few years, she’s struggled through pain, a back brace, physical therapy, a wheelchair, a walker and arm crutches as she recovered. Today, she walks with almost no trace of the injury that she suffered.
“It was rough,” Smith said. “I consider myself really lucky and blessed that I can walk.”
But Smith said she didn’t do it alone.
“A lot of my friends that I made (at Wesleyan) helped me,” Smith said. “Wesleyan was supportive of me, not just the professors, but the staff as well. Anywhere else, I wouldn’t have gotten that and I wouldn’t have made it. It made all the difference in the world.”
In October 2006, Smith was driving to Penrod Missionary Baptist Church during fall break. On the way there, while reaching for a bag of peppermint Lifesavers, she left the road, went down an embankment and hit a driveway, sending her car into the air before it smashed into another embankment.
Her L1 vertebra in her lower back was crushed by one of the impacts and she was taken to Muhlenberg Community Hospital. From there, she was airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. She underwent back surgery the following day to repair the damage, but some of the nerve damage remains. When Smith is tired, she said, she walks with a limp. She still also can’t run fast or stand on her toes. Otherwise, however, she’s fine.
Professors made provisions for Smith to return and finish her classes in the spring, picking up partway through just as she had left them in the fall. She completed them, plus her full class load with flying colors.
“It had to be a lot of work,” said Lynette Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at KWC. “She distinguished herself right off the bat. There was no reservation. (I knew) that this was someone who would finish out the work and make this all up.”
W.L. Magnuson, a professor of chemistry, said even though it was difficult for Smith, she still made it through, even standing through entire lab classes wearing her back brace.
“She had the willpower to do this,” Magnuson said.
It’s something he saw in her from the first time he met her, when she was in high school, and she told him she wanted to be a pharmacist, Magnuson said.
“I think that’s what’s driven her to succeed has been her dedication and her commitment to her professional career,” Magnuson said. “She has never wavered from that. I think that’s help her overcome these difficulties. She knew what she wanted to do.”
And overcome she did, Taylor said.
“You count on the student to finish up later, and I knew that would be the case (with her),” Taylor said.
Smith said she hopes to take what she’s learned, inside the classroom and outside, and use it to her advantage as she moves on to pharmacy school at Samford.
“I’ll miss certain things about Wesleyan and about home. I’ll always have these memories and lessons that I learned here that will help me succeed,” Smith said. “That’s a new chapter that’s about to begin. I’m really excited.”
Dariush Shafa, 691-7302, dshafa@messenger-inquirer.com
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This girl is a success story! Everyone should think twice when they complain about struggles and school. Jessica has excelled and graduated on time despite having to complete most her classes in summer school and online. She is truly a person to look up to. She is so hardworking, previously stated by many professors who themselves found Jessica Smith to be an amazing and tough/hardworkin person. It just proves the fact if you try and believe in your self anything is possible. I wish her the best of luck at pharmacy school!
This is a great success story. Jessica Smith’s story is just another example of the importance of hard work. In school, sports, and other aspects of life, hard work helps people overcome adversity and succeed more than they thought possible. Her story also shows how helpful Kentucky Wesleyan can be. Its small school and family atmosphere, an atmosphere not found at many other schools, provides a sense that anything can be accomplished–no matter the setbacks.
Upon reading this story, I was not only humbled but also motivated to work harder and strive for more in my classes and my life. Jessica is just one of many students at Kentucky Wesleyan, but she is truly unique in her journey and experiences at college. Her ability to be positive through such life threatening/changing experience is very inspirational and everyone could learn from her ability to perseverance.
I wish Jessica the best of luck in pharmacy school and life. May good be with you always.
Christi J :)