This topic focuses on the ways women negotiate their physical and emotional well-being both in their personal and family lives and in relation to the public institutions that make up our health care system. It seeks to learn about how women view, care for, and project their bodies and minds introspectively and in relation to the outside world.
I was born with CP [cerebral palsy]. I went to the doctors and physical therapy and they told me that I would probably never walk. So, I proved them all wrong because I can walk. I like to play [sports]. I can do everything.
Go for it. Just absolutely, whatever your dream is or what you think your dream is, go for it, give it a try. And look at life as opportunities, meet people, make connections. I think that's the other thing, making connections with people and really appreciating who they are and looking for the gifts in people, which I love doing. I love doing that here at Holy Cross, because when I meet a student, if they have a talent they don't necessarily like to share it – because they definitely know I'll use it in some other program. People have so much to offer and I think that sometimes you have to look a little bit for it and other times you don't have to look so hard. But there's so much good in people, and everyone has some gift to offer and tapping into that is always really exciting.
Professor Judy Freedman Fask was born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1958, but she always lived in Worcester, Massachusetts. She attended the University of Massachusetts in Amherst for her undergraduate degree and went to graduate school at Smith College and to Springfield College for a second master’s degree. She currently works as the director of Deaf Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, but she has also worked as an interpreter. Professor Fask is married with five children, several of whom have health complications.
"You get to a point were if you are an implant candidate, you really just don’t have any hearing. They are really concerned when they decide to use an implant candidate. Because any residual hearing, they wipe it out. I knew I would do pretty well, just because I knew I was going to work hard and make sure I would do well. I was a little bit excited. I knew I would have better [hearing] than what I had."
Kristen Pagliuca was born May 27, 1975, in Massachusetts. She attended Emerson College and Suffolk University where she earned a master’s degree in Health Administration. Currently she is employed as a bank manager. In this interview she discusses growing with loss of hearing in a hearing family, going to school in mainstream classrooms, and the process of cochlear implants.
"…but I still felt the effects of child abuse. So what I ended up doing was putting together a project ten years ago called Bike Across America -- Voices for Children, Bike Across America. I went to Assumption College, to our administrators, and I asked them to support me for this cause. And I wanted to cycle across the country to break the silence of child sexual abuse.…… And also, other victims have come up to me for the first time and told me their story. People have called me and told me about you know ‘my Grandfather just passed away and I’ve had this secret. And now I can finally say something’. And I encourage victims to go from being a victim to a victor in life."
Ann McCarron was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1963. Growing up in a very Irish Catholic family, Ann lived with her parents and three brothers in a part of Quincy called ‘Houghs Neck’. Ann grew up in a loving home but when she was 7 years old she was diagnosed with rheumatic fever. While in the hospital, trying to get better, she was sexually abused by her pediatrician. Ann kept the abuse secret until she was thirty-five years old. Since then she has dedicated her life to making people aware of child sexual abuse. Ann always has had a passion for sports.
