UC Clermont student turns challenges into opportunities

When Isabella Burton started classes at UC Clermont College in August 2017, she faced all the typical challenges of a college freshman — finding her classrooms, meeting professors and making new friends. But Burton faced an additional hurdle — navigating life as a new student from her wheelchair.

Burton, who graduated from Batavia High School in 2017, was born with spina bifida, a birth defect where there is incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord. Burton’s spinal cord was exposed at birth, and she has undergone a number of surgeries in her lifetime. Now 19, Burton walked until age 13, when two back surgeries eventually led to her using a wheelchair for mobility most of the time. She says transitioning into the chair just as she entered her teenage years was emotionally difficult.

“It’s a tough age anyway, and adding that change was rough,” Burton says. “But my mom, dad and sister have always supported me, and they helped me through it. I’ve always believed that I could do anything I wanted to do.”

What Burton wants to do now is earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work, with the goal of helping clients with drug addictions — an interest that she says started after watching TV programs like A&E’s “Intervention.” Searching for an affordable option and a gentle introduction to college life, Burton looked up the hill to UC Clermont. She plans to complete her associate degree in social work at the college before transitioning to UC’s Uptown Campus to advance her studies.

“I loved that it was a smaller campus,” says Burton. “I would recommend UC Clermont to anyone, especially people who need accessible resources.”

She credits the college’s College Success Program, which helps students prepare for college-level courses, with easing her transition from high school, and says the UC Clermont Accessibility Resources Office has been helpful. When not in class, Burton enjoys her job taking tickets during Cougar basketball and volleyball games in the Student Activities Center.

But it’s the personalized attention she’s received from faculty and staff, and the friendships she’s developed with other students, that have made her experience at UC Clermont a positive one. Burton recalls her first day of classes, when an elevator broke, and she couldn’t get to her classroom — so the class came downstairs to her instead. One of those classmates, Bryanna Deaton, became her best friend.

“People know who I am on a first-name basis, and that means a lot to me,” Burton says. “It’s been a great place to start.”