KIT Spotlight on Amanda Gorman

February 12, 2021

Delfa bio pictureThe next KIT Staff member to spotlight an influential Black person to acknowledge and celebrate their accomplishments for Black History Month is Inclusion Support Specialist, Delfa Garcia, MA, MEd. Delfa joined KIT in March of 2012. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience that she brings to the KIT Inclusion Support Center.

 

 

Black History Month Spotlight:

I would highlight a young lady named Amanda Gorman. She is the young poet that spoke during Biden’s inauguration. You can read her inaugural poem here or if you’d like to watch the video of her reading her poem, click here. I think that she is inspirational to our young people today and adults alike because of her immense talent and ability to build bridges with her words. What is remarkable about this young lady is that she has been affected since childhood with speech and language difficulties in the area of articulation, and an auditory processing disorder. As a result, she has had to overcome many challenges, including bullying, not being included, learning differences, etc.

When she was younger, she struggled with pronouncing certain letter sounds, like the letter R. She struggled with comprehension. She has shared in past interviews that; “she would sit in the playground during recess and in a notebook write down different ways to say the same thing so that she could communicate with peers without having to pronounce the letters or words and stand out.” Thus, her gift of words and communicating in with such eloquence started to take shape and evolve. And evolve it did, all the way to graduating from Harvard, becoming the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles at 16, First National Poet Laureate at 19, speaking at the inauguration, and best-selling books.

She is a very poised young lady that encourages all youth, especially our black youth, our girls, students who may be struggling with unique or diverse needs, and the adults that support these students. With a pen and paper by connecting words, she encourages and invites them all to build a bridge and to walk across it proudly. I have much respect for this young lady that is poised to do even greater things in the future.

If you’d like to learn more or follow her, you can do so at:

Posted in Black History Month