Diligence Pays Dividends

When Christina Chang packs her pens, pencils, erasers and notebooks into her school backpack every morning, there’s one indispensable item she doesn’t want to forget: her magnifying glass.

Without it, she would be unable to read her textbooks, study sheets and test questions. Even then, she has to hold books or papers three inches from her face and use the small portion of the glass that offers extra magnification. When she wants to know what’s written on the board, she has to ask her teacher to read it to her.

Christina has minimal central vision. Although her peripheral vision is good within 10 feet, anything directly in front of her within a 5-foot width is obscured by a blind spot.

But being legally blind doesn’t prevent the Villa Park High School junior from excelling.

A straight-A student since seventh grade, the 16-year-old from Orange has maintained a 5.0 grade-point average since her sophomore year, when she began taking honors and Advanced Placement classes.

Her diligence is paying dividends.

She has been named a National Merit Commended Scholar for having scored in the top 1% nationally on her Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test. And she has been named to the Governor’s Scholars Program roster for being among the top 5% of students in the state on the Stanford 9 test.

Today, she will be honored by the Los Angeles unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, a nonprofit group that records textbooks for students with vision, perception or physical impairments.

Christina will receive a $500 second-place award at the organization’s brunch at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. She is one of six winning students--and the only one from Orange County--chosen from about 50 applicants. The winners were selected on the basis of school achievement, community involvement and personal example.

Indeed, academics aren’t Christina’s only accomplishments.

She is a member of the National Honor Society and the California Scholarship Federation, but also belongs to the Model United Nations, American Red Cross and Junior Statesmen of America. She’s secretary of her school’s Spanish Club and president and founder of the Animal Rights and Care Club, whose members volunteer at the Orange County Animal Shelter. And she volunteers as an office worker at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Anaheim.

She plays flute and piano and has won first-place awards at regional and state piano competitions. (Unable to sight read, she memorizes pieces by reading the music with her magnifying glass and then playing it measure by measure.)

“She’s just an extraordinary student,” said Stacy Eubank, educational outreach director for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.

Describing Christina as “upbeat and positive” and “someone who sets extremely high goals for herself and meets them,” history teacher Dick Brunt said, “It’s only when she’s called upon to do something--writing or whatever--that you can tell” she has a vision problem.

Brunt said he was told last summer that he would have a sight-impaired girl in his class in the fall, “And I basically forgot about it.

“When the class met, I didn’t even notice, in all honesty, until the second week when we had an assignment. She pulled out a huge magnifying glass and put it right against her eye. She had the paper we were dealing with and she stuck that right onto the magnifying glass, which suddenly triggered in my mind, ‘This is the young lady.’ ”

Brunt said Christina never asks for additional help in class. The only thing she needs is extra time for tests, he said.

Having to read a test with a magnifying glass is time consuming, Brunt said, “But the incredible thing is she never goes back once she reads the question.” And even when she asks him to read additional test questions on the board, he said, “She never asks me to read them twice. She has a remarkable memory.”

Christina became aware of her vision problem in first grade. An eye doctor wasn’t sure what her problem was. When she was in ninth grade, a UCLA ophthalmologist diagnosed cone/rod dystrophy, “But he’s still looking for the cause in order to find a treatment,” said Christina’s mother, Julie.

Christina attributes her 5.0 GPA partly to “getting into the habit of studying and having good study habits. It’s also because I have a lot of support from family and friends. They encourage me to do well.”

She has a full schedule of six honors and advanced placement classes: AP U.S. history, European history and chemistry; and honors pre-calculus, physics and English 11 (world literature.)

Maintaining her grades is “really hard work,” she said.

After school, she practices piano for an hour or two, then begins four to five hours of homework broken only by dinner.

On Saturday mornings she spends two hours studying Chinese at the North Orange County Chinese School and the rest of the day with friends “just having fun.” After church on Sunday, she spends five or six hours on homework.

Christina wants to become an English teacher or a journalist.

“I also want to set an example for society,” she said, “that having disabilities doesn’t hinder your ability to succeed.”