The Ocean State Center for Independent Living (OSCIL) has awarded three Rhode Island students with a $1,840 scholarship to assist them as they pursue their college educations and their ultimate career goals.

Isabella Miko-Rydzaj, Isobel McCullough and Aria Loberti were the beneficiaries of this year’s round of the Catherine T. Murray Memorial Scholarship, which was established in 1995 by the late Catherine Murray, an OSCIL former board member and Warwick schoolteacher. The scholarship fund received an infusion of additional funding this year due to generosity from The Murray Family Charitable Foundation, which was set up by Murray’s nephew, Terry.

“It’s definitely going to help,” said Miko-Rydzaj, a lifeguard, attendee of the Prout School and an incoming freshman at Holy Cross who was diagnosed with unilateral hearing loss at five years old. “This will definitely help to pay for some of the accommodations at college.”

Miko-Rydzaj said that the scholarship will help pay for some of the costs associated with a learning tool that she will use – a smart pen that allows students to record a lecture whilst simultaneously taking notes digitally. The note taker is able to go highlight a specific section of notes and listen back to the audio to see if they missed anything.

“I used to record lectures on the computer, but this is way better,” she said.

Isobel McCullough has Tourette’s syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder, and was able to express herself and find solace through theater.

“When I was little, theater was my big outlet because there’s a theater company in my town called GEAR, which is “Give Everyone a Role,” and their big thing is accessible theater,” McCullough said.

McCullough, a South Kingstown native and incoming sophomore at the University of Rhode Island, said that the scholarship money will be a huge benefit to her studies, as she will be able to use it to cut down her copay for needed therapeutic services and other costs associated with her studies, like books and meal plan fees.

“It’s a huge deal for me because since I was eight, I’ve been attending cognitive, behavioral interventional therapy bi-weekly, which is like a therapeutic, behavior therapy for people with Tourette’s and OCD,” she said. “I have insurance but I have a significant co-pay on that so this’ll be great because it will take a lot of pressure off my parents...it’ll just be nice to have that alleviated a little bit.”

Lorna Ricci, executive director for OSCIL, said that students are chosen for this scholarship after proving that they have a real vision for what they want to do in life, and how they want to contribute positively to society.

Miko-Rydzaj said she hopes to major in art, but also wants to take pre-med classes to perhaps one day become a cosmetic dermatologist or a plastic surgeon. McCullough has dreams of becoming a director.

“With these two and with Ariel, they scored highest because of this real clear goal that they wanted, both of them. That’s what truly makes the decision,” Ricci said.

Both students were asked what advice they would give to kids struggling with disabilities, having lived through their own struggles but ultimately finding success and happiness in their own unique ways.

“Definitely speak up and communicate with others, because then they can be more understanding of what you’re going through,” Miko-Rydzaj said. “If you don’t speak up about your disability you can never get the resources that you need and people won’t understand where you’re coming from.”

“It’s not necessarily overcoming it, because I think a lot of being a person with a disability is embracing it or accepting it as a part of who you are and then understanding who you are as a whole person and moving forward with it and not seeing it as something that’s going to weigh you down but rather as something you can reclaim and include as a part of who you are,” McCullough said.