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Elmhurst Student Wins National Speakers Association Award
The National Speakers Association recently awarded its $5,000 Bill Gove Scholarship to Hannah Thompson, who is about to start her senior year at Elmhurst College.
Thompson could not have been a more perfect candidate for the award. She also could not have been a more unlikely one.
Perfect because Thompson loves everything about public speaking: In high school, she embraced being a member of the speech team; at Elmhurst, she excelled in a public speaking course that most communication majors dread; and her professional dream is to be a motivational speaker.
Unlikely because, despite her accomplishments and goals, Thompson lacks the one thing that’s usually a given for these awards. She can’t speak, at least not on her own.
Diagnosed at two months old with cerebral palsy, a brain and nervous system disorder that can affect functions such as movement, hearing, and sight, Thompson uses an electronic voice simulator, known as a DynaVox, to communicate.
Except for a few simple words, such as “Hi, Yes, and No,” Thompson, who has been using a wheelchair since the 1st grade, has never had the ability to speak unassisted. When she was very young, she resisted using a DynaVox—“I didn’t feel it was my voice,” Thompson recalls—and for many years preferred a simple, laminated ABC board to convey her thoughts. But by the 7th grade, Thompson had embraced the high-tech device and found her voice, and her calling.
“When I’m speaking, I feel like I am home and where God wants me,” Thompson says of her aspiration to be a motivational speaker. “I hope I can inspire my audiences to do their ‘impossible,’ like going to college and living independently was for me.”
Anne Walker, a longtime National Speech Association member who served on the scholarship committee, says that in addition to the academic strength of Thompson’s application and her outstanding essay, Thompson’s positive attitude and ability to face adversity head-on came through on the required videotape submission.
“All kinds of people are speakers, and even though she can’t speak on her own, she can still get her message across,” Walker says. “It’s so inspiring. It leaves you with a real respect for her as a person.”
Deatra Sullivan-Morgan, an assistant professor of communication studies at the College and the person who nominated Thompson for the award, knew that winning it would put Thompson in a position “to make connections with the people who do this for a living.”
“Hannah is so intent and so dynamic,” said Sullivan-Morgan, who also is Thompson’s academic advisor. “She handles challenges most of us don’t have to every day, just to be a college student.”
Thompson hopes the next thing you learn about her will be delivered on the big screen. She is working on a video documentary of her life, which she intends to debut before graduation.
“There’s clearly a lot of depth to this young woman, not just surface stuff,” Walker says. “I think in the years to come, people will hear a lot more from her.”
