Name: Ana Vallejo
Year: Senior
Major: Visual Disability Education
Hometown: Miami, FL
Photo By: Lauren Alsina
Her Campus (HC): What is visual impairment?
Ana Vallejo (AV): A visual impairment is when you have any sort of restriction in your vision, anything from a field loss, which could deal with problems involving your peripheral vision, to a really strong Myopia or Hyperopia and it could even be blindness. A lot of things fall under the umbrella of visual impairment.
HC: Tell us about your major.
AV: It is a great but small major. In my cohort, there are only fifteen of us. There are three master’s students and 12 undergraduate students. Everybody knows each other and our professors; it’s a lot more personal and it’s an amazing program. We are expected to teach students the things that they are not getting visually. It is our job to make sure that they are as independent as possible. It’s something that people do not realize that is out there. You don’t realize it is something you need until it happens to you, or someone you know and care about.
HC: What made you want to go into this field?
AV: Every single summer since freshmen year of high school, I volunteered at the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, a summer camp for visually impaired children. I kept going back although I had finished my volunteering requirements for high school. However, I didn’t want to study visual impairment when I first got into college. I was in a major that I wasn’t happy with. I was having a conversation with one of my friends and she asked me what I wanted to do when I was a child. I said a teacher, and that’s how I knew what I wanted to do. It turns out that Florida State University is the only school in Florida that offers a visual disability education program; I thought it was a sign.
Photo By: Lauren Alsina
HC: What is your dream job?
AV: I want to work everywhere! There are so many things I want to do. I want to work in third-world countries and better their educational systems for students that are blind. I want to take old braillers and canes and teach students how to work with them. I’m sure that in some of these countries, they still have this negative stigma surrounding them. I want to provide these students with the resources that they didn’t even know they had. I also want to work in London, well, just because it’s London.
HC: What do you value most in life?
AV: I value a lot of things, but travel is one of them because it’s so important; travel everywhere, work everywhere and do everything. There are so many things that I want to see and experience! I cannot sit still. The idea of settling down somewhere does not appeal to me. I can’t see myself staying in the same place for more than five years. I haven’t yet been to a place that I feel like I could call home.
HC: Just for fun… describe yourself in two words.
AV: Chunky yet funky.