Miss-Delectable
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Postbulletin.com: Rochester, MN
Eric Bell may not hear it when his name is announced at tonight's Beat the Odds scholarship banquet, but it's almost guaranteed that the Stewartville High School senior has a plan to cope.
Legally half deaf, Bell uses a combination of hearing aids, lip-reading and ingenuity to succeed in any situation, making him one of eight area students being honored with a scholarship from the Rochester Community and Technical College Foundation, which recognizes them for overcoming tremendous odds. The scholarship is sponsored in part by the Post-Bulletin.
Bell was about three years old when his parents took him for a hearing test.
"The doctors thought I wasn't smart enough to push the button," Bell said. "They didn't believe I was losing my hearing."
Bell was later diagnosed with the same genetic disorder that affects all of the men on his father's side of the family, including his father, he said.
"He's never used his hearing loss as a reason he can't do something," said Bell's nominator Ann Veronica Vail, a teacher with the Zumbro Education District. "He comes up with ways to get beyond his hearing loss."
In school he learned to sit at the front of the room. He also figured out the best combination of hearing aids and devices to help him keep up with the teacher, as well as the classroom discussion, she said.
But because hearing aids can be destroyed by moisture, including sweat, to play sports, Bell had to leave them on the sidelines.
As the center in football, Bell couldn't hear the quarterback who stood directly behind him. So he came up with a solution. When the quarterback called "Hut," he also tapped Bell, he said.
In basketball, when the point guard called out the number of the play, he also held up his hand indicating the number so Bell understood, he said.
During his ninth-grade year, Bell said he started half of the games. A knee injury ended his basketball and football playing, he said, but it hasn't stopped him from competing in shot put and discus.
Bell hopes to become a special education teacher as a way to give back to the teachers who've helped him, he said. Starting this week he is spending two hours a day as a teacher's aide, serving as a role model for other students.
"I can show them that they can do it," Bell said. "Like in sports it may be hard, but not impossible."
Eric Bell may not hear it when his name is announced at tonight's Beat the Odds scholarship banquet, but it's almost guaranteed that the Stewartville High School senior has a plan to cope.
Legally half deaf, Bell uses a combination of hearing aids, lip-reading and ingenuity to succeed in any situation, making him one of eight area students being honored with a scholarship from the Rochester Community and Technical College Foundation, which recognizes them for overcoming tremendous odds. The scholarship is sponsored in part by the Post-Bulletin.
Bell was about three years old when his parents took him for a hearing test.
"The doctors thought I wasn't smart enough to push the button," Bell said. "They didn't believe I was losing my hearing."
Bell was later diagnosed with the same genetic disorder that affects all of the men on his father's side of the family, including his father, he said.
"He's never used his hearing loss as a reason he can't do something," said Bell's nominator Ann Veronica Vail, a teacher with the Zumbro Education District. "He comes up with ways to get beyond his hearing loss."
In school he learned to sit at the front of the room. He also figured out the best combination of hearing aids and devices to help him keep up with the teacher, as well as the classroom discussion, she said.
But because hearing aids can be destroyed by moisture, including sweat, to play sports, Bell had to leave them on the sidelines.
As the center in football, Bell couldn't hear the quarterback who stood directly behind him. So he came up with a solution. When the quarterback called "Hut," he also tapped Bell, he said.
In basketball, when the point guard called out the number of the play, he also held up his hand indicating the number so Bell understood, he said.
During his ninth-grade year, Bell said he started half of the games. A knee injury ended his basketball and football playing, he said, but it hasn't stopped him from competing in shot put and discus.
Bell hopes to become a special education teacher as a way to give back to the teachers who've helped him, he said. Starting this week he is spending two hours a day as a teacher's aide, serving as a role model for other students.
"I can show them that they can do it," Bell said. "Like in sports it may be hard, but not impossible."