Senior Johnny Walsh was so pleased with his four years at Notre
Dame that as he neared graduation he decided to give something
to the University.
$25,000.
The gift is earmarked for the University's Office for Students
with Disabilities.
Walsh has had a hearing deficiency since birth and started to
lose his sight at age 15 as a result of a progressive genetic
disease, Usher syndrome. At Notre Dame he was able to take tests
at the Office for Students with Disabilities and was given extra
time to complete them, he says. The office also provided note-takers
for lectures and students to read text books aloud, among other
assistance. Walsh says he wants other students with disabilities
to be able to come to the University and be provided the help
they need.
The money for the donation, he says, came from a kind of trust
fund set up by his parents that he and his three older siblings
can tap to support charitable causes of their choosing.
The senior from Madison, Wisconsin, has met another student
with a vision disability who was successful at Notre Dame: Tim
Cordes '98. It happened two years ago at a send-off party in Madison
for area high school graduates heading to Notre Dame as freshmen.
Cordes, who is blind, became a valedictorian at Notre Dame and
earlier this year earned his medical degree from the University
of Wisconsin in Madison.
Walsh's father is a lawyer, and Johnny Walsh says he plans to
work as a researcher at a law firm next year with the intention
of beginning law school the following year.
(July 2005)
