VAN NUYS : Man in Wheelchair Proves His Point

Time and again, Ian Collins, a 19-year-old senior at Birmingham High School, has had to prove that he can get along as well as anybody--despite the cerebral palsy that keeps him confined to a wheelchair.

With a razor-sharp intellect and strong opinions on such subjects as racism, education and California’s growing population problem, Collins often felt frustrated when teachers and peers alike did not have the patience to look beyond his wheelchair or the convulsive manner in which he communicates to discover what he had to say.

But with the constant encouragement of his mother, Natlyn Hirsch, Collins has been able to channel that frustration into an ever stronger desire to succeed in life and to serve as a voice for other disabled people.

That’s why when United Teachers of Los Angeles sent out a Christa McAuliffe Scholarship application to Collins with the requirement that he discuss the program’s “Reaching for the Stars” theme in an essay or poem, the words flowed like water.

“My mother always taught me to do all I could for myself,” he wrote. “She taught me there is no real compassion in the world; therefore never care about what others think of you, only what you think of yourself.

“When I was 11 . . . she carried me to the top of the Eiffel Tower on her back. When we made it there, she said, ‘I want you to see all there is to see and be all that you can be,’ ” he wrote. “All I ever wanted is . . . a good education.”

Collins is one of 11 San Fernando Valley high school seniors to receive an academic award of up to $1,000 from the Christa McAuliffe Scholarship Fund. The award is named for the teacher who died in the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986.

“This award goes out to those students working especially hard to better themselves,” said Emily Ettinger, a scholarship fund committee member and former teacher of Collins. “Ian is quite an amazing example of this. In one of my classes, he volunteered to read the part of Julius Caesar. “After he was done,” she continued, “we were so proud. We all had tears in our eyes.”

“Julius Caesar was a strange man,” remembered Collins. “He wanted more and more and was never satisfied.” Squirming in his wheelchair, however, he then added: “People should not let anyone stand in their way. You can do all things.”

In pursuit of that goal, Collins will be attending either UC Berkeley, Howard University or Memphis State University in the fall, all of which have awarded him full, four-year scholarships.

He plans to major in political science and, eventually, to study law so he can become an attorney for the disabled. “I want to help others who are like me,” he said. “There is too much discrimination. We should all be able to get along. Somebody has to stop the hate before it’s too late.”