Sky Burke, a sixth-grade student at Sequoya Middle School, was recently informed she is the recipient of a 2013 Fred J. Epstein Youth Junior Achievement Award from Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities.
The following statement was written about Sky on the Smart Kids website:
Struggling with dyslexia and dysgraphia, she created and presented a PowerPoint at her 3rd-grade IEP meeting, and has never looked back–advocating successfully to use an iPad (the first in her school district), and presenting for several Long Island organizations, including a keynote address before an audience of 450 people at a regional self-advocacy conference. For four years, she received the Principal’s Award at her elementary school for her hard work and dedication to her education, and now, at 12, is a 6th-grader at the Sequoya Middle School in Holtsville.
“I am a self-advocate and I give presentations across Long Island about self-advocacy and assistive technology,” she wrote on her website. “I work with other agencies and groups to share information about self-advocacy.”
The 2013 awards will be presented at the organization’s annual benefit on the evening of Friday, April 26, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency in Old Greenwich, Conn.