Explorer of the Month - Pascuala Herrera Pascuala Herrera recently spoke at the Palatine High School Latino career program. The career coordinator was blown away at the attention level of the students; you could literally have heard a pin drop. You know that this is a rarity! Not only is Ms. Herrera a dynamic speaker, she is truly an amazing woman. She described her extraordinary experiences in casual and practical ways that left everyone in the room thinking “maybe I could reach a little higher”. Ms. Herrera was born in Mexico and became deathly ill with Polio when she was only 9 months old; she lay in a coma for nearly 6 months. When she finally pulled out of it, she was left paralyzed from her waste down. It was not until she turned six and was attending school (riding on her sister’s back) that her parents decided to relocate to the United States so that she could have more opportunities available to her. She was very successful in her educational pursuits, although not without opposition. She was the valedictorian of her high school class and was accepted to DePaul University. There were many obstacles that could have prevented her from attending: lack of financial resources, lack of transportation, etc. However, Ms. Herrera did not let them deter her from going after her ambitions. She applied for every scholarship that she could find and, basically received a full ride. In addition, she bought a car and learned how to drive using a contraption that was completely controlled by her hands. Currently, Ms. Herrera still works at Harper College as the Coordinator of LD Services, and is also an Associate Professor for Humanistic Psychology. In addition, she is authoring a children’s book titled My Mom Rocks, Her Chair Rolls that teaches children about having parents with special needs. She will also be traveling around to local high schools for speaker sessions such as the one she did with Learning for Life. We are honored to know Ms. Herrera and am thankful for her participation in Scouting’s Learning of Life and Exploring programs. Her passion has been a great inspiration, and we are looking forward to working with her in future projects.