Win Stevens, Germanna Community College’s Coordinator of Disabilities Services, at Summer Boot Camp for Rising High School Seniors (and some recent high school graduates) held at Germanna Community College’s Fredericksburg Area Campus on Friday, June 24, 2016. (Photo by Robert A. Martin)
From Germanna Community College
When Win Stevens was in college, his goal was to become a radio show host.
Stevens, who suffers from dyslexia, worked extremely hard to overcome his disability in his communications class, rehearsing a speech by listening to tapes of himself again and again.
When his class presentation was a success, Stevens’ professor, perplexed that he could do so well despite a disability that made taking and reviewing notes difficult, accused him of cheating.
That experience, which at first crushed Stevens, later inspired him to change his career course toward working with students with disabilities.
“Supporting students with disabilities became my passion,” he said.
That passion was rewarded in September with a 2018 Virginia Rehabilitation Association Corbett Reedy Award for Excellence The annual award honors a Virginian who has “creatively pursued excellence [toward] a significant rehabilitation cause.”
For the past decade, Stevens has served as the Coordinator of Disability Services at Germanna Community College.
“I think Win is deserving of this award because of his passion for working with students with disabilities, the way he treats each person as a unique and valuable individual, and how he empowers others,” said Goodwill Industries Inc. Culpeper Director of Workforce Services Marty Bywaters-Baldwin, who nominated him for the award.
“For many students, the transition from K-12 to post-secondary corresponds with that from child to adult (age 18),” Bywaters-Baldwin noted in his nomination of Stevens. “As a result, the rules of the education game change all at once. In his role, Win coaches students in self-advocacy, assists them in developing an educational plan, and supports them in securing accommodations so that they can learn most effectively in an integrated setting.”
Stevens said: “I’m also a person with a disability and I understand the struggles students with disabilities face. I want to lower barriers and make disabilities more like a speed bump they can drive over and keep going instead of feeling like they’re walking into and up the wall of the Grand Canyon.”
Students and colleagues alike noted his deep enthusiasm and commitment.
“Win Stevens is a consummate professional and a fierce advocate for our students,” said Dr. Tiffany Ray, Germanna vice president of student services. “Win receiving the Corbett Reedy Award exemplifies how deeply we value the relationships with our local partners and the network of support we all create to uplift our communities, particularly the most vulnerable.”
“Having a champion believe in what you can achieve is truly important, and that is what Win does every day,” said RGI’s Bywaters-Baldwin.
Stevens provides personal attention to each student, helping them reach their academic goals and even inspiring one student to become a disability services coordinator at another college.
Amy Flowers Umble wrote this in a 2016 story for The Free Lance-Star about Stevens’ work:
“Stevens becomes personally invested in each student, said Devon Geary, who used Germanna’s disability services in 2008. A rare genetic disorder made it difficult for Geary to walk and she fainted often. In fact, she fainted moments after meeting Stevens for the first time. She fell out of her wheelchair and convulsed on the floor. Stevens helped in the moment and offered longer-term academic and emotional support … [and, she said], ‘completely changed my life. Win is, I believe, one of Germanna’s greatest treasures,” she said. In class one day, Geary fainted. A classmate ran to get Stevens.” He sat on the floor with me waiting for me to wake up,” Geary said…. Geary later became a disability services coordinator at Amherst College and saw the behind-the-scenes work involved in helping students. She realized her situation made for a lot of paperwork and problem-solving. ‘In those moments, I was overcome with emotion and gratitude that Win didn’t see it like that,’ she said.”
Stevens also builds bridges to community resources for his students, connecting students with job training at community partners like Rappahannock Goodwill Industries, Inc. and to vocational rehabilitation services at Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services.
Bywaters-Baldwin said Rappahannock Goodwill Industries recognized Stevens as a champion for connecting students with disabilities to employment opportunities and believes in getting them connected to resources in the community that will truly make a difference for them.
Bywaters-Baldwin said Stevens was instrumental in the success of a partnership between Germanna and Rappahannock Goodwill Industries called the Career Connected Education Program. Starting in 2013, the program gave Germanna students jobs at Goodwill with support from both Goodwill Job Coaches and Germanna career counselors and faculty.
This program started in 2013, and though it is no longer a formal partnership, Bywaters-Baldwin said RGI built a strong relationship with Stevens and the state disabilities services department.
Stevens credited colleague Marie Hawley, coordinator of Germanna’s Career & Transfer Center, with being a major force in making the Goodwill partnership and others work for GCC students.
Stevens, who is working on his doctorate, said it’s important to America to bridge “the cavernous divide between the able-bodied and those with disabilities” when it comes to getting jobs. “I want to figure out ways to help students with disabilities to reach their potential, become gainfully employed—and to become taxpayers.”
