Reflecting Light
Junior Eleanor Guipe finds her passion for creating an inclusive community
As cheering voices echo through the water, Eleanor Guipe feels confident that among those voices is her father’s. For all 11 years that Guipe has been swimming, her dad has always been by her side. This connection has not only helped her achieve her swimming dreams but has also given her new passions and aspirations. Guipe’s father’s experience as a special education teacher at her school opened her eyes to the discrimination and shame that surrounds the disabled community. She specifically observed this in her school environment.
“They used to hide the kids in middle school, we didn’t have Best Buddies or any program that allowed them to connect with the rest of the kids,” Guipe said. “There was a kid that they wouldn’t let go on field trips because he wasn’t as able as the other kids. But my dad would take him and would let him shoot baskets because he loved basketball.”
Motivated by her dad’s kindness and dedication to making everyone feel welcome, Guipe has spent a lot of her free time working with special needs students and bridging the gap between them and the rest of the student body.
“I’m a big advocate for those kids and have always just been really passionate about them,” Guipe said. “I’ve been doing Unified Track and Best Buddies for all of high school and am doing Unified Football next year. Since we didn’t have Best Buddies in middle school, I participated in Best Buddy Walks.”
Further familial ties have also led Guipe to be interested in studying psychology in hopes of possibly becoming a behavioral therapist for kids with special needs or on the autism spectrum.
“My parents’ friends have a daughter with cerebral palsy and that just opened up a branch for me because I always saw this light in her,” Guipe said. “Even when we were at her grandpa’s funeral, she still had this light about her that drew me to her.”
Guipe hopes to reciprocate this by being a light in others’ lives and creating a space where everyone feels like they belong.
“I just don’t think they get enough credit for who they are as a person,” Guipe said. “They’re people just like everyone else.”