Tiffani first realized she was “different” from her classmates when she was in the third grade: she simply couldn’t understand the material being taught. When an educational evaluation revealed a reading and mathematics disorder, she was placed in a special education classroom. Tiffani describes her learning difference as “seeing a word that isn’t really there … seeing words, but upside down.”
Understandably, Tiffani’s hardest classes in school were any “that had to do with reading and essays.” While she always had lots of friends in high school, she was aware that she struggled to keep up with them.
Tiffani didn’t think college would be an option until her mathematics teacher urged her to explore Beacon College. Her road to Beacon wasn’t a smooth one; Tiffani learned that her reading scores might be too low for acceptance. She made the very difficult but mature choice to put off entering Beacon College until she could strengthen her scores.
Now a second semester junior at Beacon with a cumulative GPA of 3.61, Tiffani says, “it’s hard [having a learning difference], but it doesn’t make me any different from anyone else.” Outside the classroom, she’s also developed tremendous leadership skills as an orientation leader, resident assistant, teaching assistant, peer tutor and student ambassador.
