Blind, Minkara eyes bright future

AT AGE 7, Mona Minkara of Wellesley, Mass., started seeing wild colours swirl through her vision. Doctors first dismissed her symptoms, but eventually her family learned a startling diagnosis: Their daughter was suffering from macular degeneration and cone-rod dystrophy. She was going blind.

Her eyesight growing steadily dimmer, Minkara spent most of her school years in special education classes, bored and restless. As a sophomore, she rejected lowered expectations and asked to study advanced biology. Although warned she would not succeed, Mona soon proved her critics wrong.

"I got the highest grade in that class," she said, "and I thought, 'Oh, snap!' After that, I thought I could do everything advanced and so I went for it."

On June 5, Minkara stood before 600 fellow members of the class of 2009 at graduation from Wellesley College. After a writing and speaking competition, she was selected as the student commencement speaker, a tradition at Wellesley since 1969 when Hillary Clinton served as the first student speaker for her class.

"It's an honour," said Minkara, who is now legally blind. "I hope disabled students around the country can realise you can make it even though you might be blind, deaf, or whatever." The daughter of Lebanese immigrants Fida El-Jamal and Samer Minkara of Hingham, Mass., Minkara spoke Arabic before learning English. A devoted Muslim who has worn the hijab since sixth grade, she sometimes felt isolated from other schoolmates due to her blindness and minority status. But that didn't crush her drive to succeed. "It's made me stronger and taught me to be who I am," said Minkara.

Minkara has served as president of Al-Muslimat, Wellesley's Muslim student group, where she has focused on interfaith outreach.

A chemistry and Middle Eastern studies double major, she will continue this summer at Wellesley as a researcher with assistant professor of chemistry Mala Radhakrishnan through a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This year Minkara has studied computational chemistry with Professor Radhakrishnan, investigating how enzymes and proteins recognise one another, research aimed at improving medicines for diseases like HIV. Pam Davis, an aide who has worked with her for the past two years, has been struck by Minkara's ability to memorise her way around the Wellesley campus — and by her courage. "Mona explained, 'I'm not afraid to fall. That's why I walk around with confidence'."

Mona acts like she can see so people do not treat her as if she were "different" or less than whole. "She is the bravest person I have ever met," Davis said. Jannah