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 The Amputee Coalition of America (ACA) has received its first endowed scholarship fund, with an initial gift of $25,000 from Christina Skoski, M.D. The award will grant a student with limb loss $1,000 to be used toward his or her college education, and the recipient will be announced on May 31, 2009.
Dr. Skoski, a hemipelvectomy amputee since age 15, has been a longtime member and supporter of the ACA, and currently serves on the Medical Advisory Committee. She got the idea for the endowment after a visit with her accountant. “We were talking about retirement planning and he asked me what I wanted my legacy to be,” she says. “So I started thinking about the things that are important to me – the things that shaped my life and allowed me to reach this level of success.” Next to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, which saved her life from fibrosarcoma, she realized that her values were shaped by the education she had received. “When you live with a disability, people are going to look at you differently, like it or not,” says Dr. Skoski. “But when you’ve got an education, a set of skills and a rewarding job, no one can set limits on you.”
Dr. Skoski also thinks about the secondary outcomes of such a scholarship: A good education can lead to a good job, which will enable amputees to become self-reliant and hopefully obtain the type of health insurance that they will need if they wear prosthetic devices. In fact, one of the reasons Dr. Skoski chose medicine was the self-reliance she knew it could bring her. “It’s an extremely interesting profession, one that obviously benefits others, but I also knew that, no matter what, I could always work as a doctor,” she says. “No matter what the economic conditions, doctors are always needed.”
While her medical career has been personally and professional rewarding, Dr. Skoski believes that all types of educational goals are worthy of this scholarship. “I would really like to see kids reach for whatever academic goals that they can,” says Dr. Skoski. “I want kids to succeed and go for the gold, whatever their interests are.” She also feels that creating academic opportunities is an important balance to the multitudes of sports-related opportunities for people with limb loss. “There’s nothing wrong with sports, but I want to recognize that there are other ways to help build self-esteem in young people with limb loss,” she says. “There’s arts, science, technology, literature, music, etc.,” she adds. “Your talents don’t reside in your limbs.”
Dr. Skoski hopes that other donors will be inspired to contribute. “I’d like to encourage donors to give what they can to this fund because it’s all going to the kids,” she says. “With more funding we can give larger scholarships to one student or else give to more than one student at a time,” she adds.
Of course, the ACA also hopes that the fund will grow in future years through matching gifts. Donations are tax-deductible and can be made to the Christina Skoski, M.D., Scholarship Fund.
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