OFA’s scholarship recipients are a wide and varied group. While they all have one thing in common, a history that brings them to OFA, their passions bring accolades far beyond where they started. Isaiah Wilcox, OFA Scholarship recipient and a Junior at Morehouse College in Georgia, was recently featured in his local newspaper, The Champion Free Press.

Isaiah, we are so proud of you for the work you’re doing and can’t wait to find out where you’re headed.

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Ask Anil Lewis about Isaiah Wilcox and prepare for a long list of accolades. The young man is on fire. He’s accepted his blindness, and he’s moving forward, said Lewis, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Georgia (NFBGA). He has a lot of energy, a lot of passion.

He’s a transformative leader. That energy and passion are part of the reasons Wilcox received NFBGA’s Keith Tonge Leadership Award at the Downtown Decatur Holiday Inn in October. Wilcox, who is president of the board of the Georgia Association of Blind Students (GABS), an organization that he brought from a membership of three students two years ago to about 50 today, according to Lewis.

Wilcox, 21, is currently a junior studying business administration at Morehouse College. His goals are to get a degree in public relations and eventually open his own business. Wilcox was born five weeks premature with optical atrophy, a disease that impairs the nerve. He’s been blind since birth. My ultimate goal is to continue to get more involved in the community and really change what it means to be blind, said Wilcox. He said it’s crucial that statistics be improved such as the 70 percent unemployment rate among the blind and the 45 percent high school graduation rate among blind students.

And this isn’t Wilcox’s first recognition from NFBGA. In 2008, he was the recipient of a $3,000 college scholarship from the organization. I am dedicated to motivating, improving, and inspiring the lives of others to reach their highest potential educationally, professionally, and personally, is a quote attributed to Wilcox from the GABS Web site.