Northwestern University's RERC Scholars Program

We initiated the NU-RERC Scholar Program during our 1998-2003 NIDRR-RERC in P&O and modeled it after the NIDRR Scholar Program (originally known as the “Dole Young Scholar Program”). The purpose of the NIDRR Scholar Program was to provide undergraduate students with disabilities the opportunity to participate in rehabilitation engineering research projects with the hope that some of these motivated and talented young people would decide to pursue a career in rehabilitation research. Unfortunately, the NIDRR Scholar Program was discontinued due to lack of funding. However, we were inspired by the success of our own Scholars to create the NU-RERC Scholar Program.  We use a portion of our RERC funds to host our own “Scholar” annually.  The goal of the NU-RERC “Scholar” Program is to provide individuals with a disability the opportunity to participate in research and potentially encourage them to pursue a career in rehabilitation research.  We actively recruit persons with disability to be involved in rehabilitation research projects within our RERC, providing similar opportunities as the NIDRR Scholar program.

Dole Young Scholars

1994 Jaime Hardt

1996 Brian Ruhe, MS

Brian has bilateral transfemoral amputations, the result of an automobile accident when he was a college undergraduate.  After completing a short stint as a Scholar conducting research in our laboratory, Brian decided to apply to the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program at Northwestern University.  Brian received his Masters degree in 2004.  He is now working on his Ph.D. degree and conducting research on lower-limb prostheses.

2000 Kellie Lim, MD

Kellie is a young woman with bilateral transtibial amputations, a right transradial amputation, and who is missing three fingers on her left hand.  During her time with our laboratory, Kellie proved herself a phenomenal research assistant, and we ended up hiring her full-time for a period of about a year after she completed her undergraduate degree.  Kellie then went to medical school at University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA).  She graduated near the top of her class in Spring 2007, and is now completing a pediatric residency at the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA.  Dr. Lim was featured last year on several local and national news programs, in the L.A. Times, and was interviewed on Larry King Live (now featured on YouTube.com).

NU-RERC Scholars

2002 Allison Boynton, CPO

Allison has a left transradial limb deficiency.  She is a certified prosthetist/orthotist who received her training at NUPOC.  Her NIDRR Scholar project was a pilot investigation of a new orthotic knee joint for use in Knee Ankle Foot Orthoses (KAFOs).  Allison was involved with fabrication of the KAFO, the planning and execution of the experimental protocol, data processing and analysis, and data interpretation.  This pilot data was used to support a NIDRR-RERC funded project.  She currently works as a prosthetist-orthotist in Georgia.

2004 Jason Wening, MS, CP

Jason was a NUPOC student who expressed interest in our research laboratory, having had some previous experience with a gait analysis laboratory. Jason has bilateral transtibial limb loss and walks with prostheses. Under the NU-RERC Scholar Program, we were able to involve Jason in ongoing research in our motion analysis laboratory. He has since gone to work for Scheck and Siress Prosthetics, Orthotics and Pedorthics, a clinical P&O facility in the Chicago-area, as Clinical Research Director for the company. We continue to collaborate with Jason and Scheck and Siress.

2005 John Krenzel, MS

John was a Master’s student in mechanical engineering at Cornell University when he originally contacted us in early 2005 with the hope of visiting our laboratory for a few months to participate in some of our upper-limb prosthetics research. John, who has bilateral transhumeral amputations, was unaware of our NU-RERC Scholar Program, but we were able to use this mechanism to provide him the opportunity. John has since gone on to pursue a Ph.D. degree at the University of Colorado – Boulder.

2006 Elena Sorci

Elena has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder that affects her gait. Clinically-trained in both prosthetics and orthotics in NUPOC, Elena assisted with a NIDRR-RERC funded pilot investigation on ankle foot orthoses. She is now completing her orthotics residency at the Cleveland Clinic.