First student with Down Syndrome to graduate from high school

(The following are excerpts from the article of TRISH J. GOLEZ, a preschool owner and directress, published by Manila Bulletin last month. She writes about Sam, her daughter with Down Syndrome, the first to graduate from high school this month. Click to read the full article: run-sam-run)

SEVENTEEN years ago, when Sam’s pediatrician made this pronouncement to my husband Francis and me, it sounded like a “death sentence” for our newborn baby girl.

For the next two weeks after Sam was born, I wallowed in pain and despair as images of our teenaged Sam blankly staring at a TV set, looking like a total moron, consumed almost all of my waking moments.

Forward to 2010.

Sam

Nothing could be farther from my greatest fears then. At 17, Sam not only had the hottest date during the juniors’ prom of St. Scholastica’s Academy Bacolod, she also already won medals in the only Special Olympics she joined in 2008, and ran in five 5K fun runs.

Sam has also added two more 5K runs to her resume: the Milo Dumaguete leg last October 2010, and the 2nd Cebu City Marathon last Jan. 9.

She is getting ready for the Expo Run in Bacolod on March 6.

And she finished them all still smiling at the finish line!

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