Never Give Up

By Karen Corcoran

Ryan is my 19 year old son who was diagnosed with full mutation at age 5 in 1996. Fifteen years later, I am thrilled and amazed at what Ryan has accomplished. His “Can Do” attitude and He was a keynote speaker at this
years Dare to Dream conference… determination has allowed him to progress and achieve things that I thought might be impossible. He’s been educated in mainstream classes, self contained classes and general special ed. He graduated from high school on schedule in 2010. Along his journey, he picked up a few awards including Character Award for perseverance, achievement and respect of others. He also was involved in the Drama Dept in high school – ushering for plays and working on stage crew. He was a keynote speaker at this years Dare to Dream conference where he spoke of his greatest accomplishment – graduating high school and getting into the Dream Program at Mercer County Community College in NJ.

Ryan is amazing in other ways too. He is very outgoing and loves to be involved in everything! He inspires everyone around him to be a better person through patience, understanding, living life to the fullest, laughing and doing the very best that you can do. He loves Broadway shows, all types of music, TV, tennis and hanging out. He is well traveled. He’s been to Hawaii, CA, FL, Savannah and almost every island in the Caribbean. He also travels alone on airplanes navigating his way through connections at airports such as Dulles in DC. His newest accomplishment is using NJ transit trains to get to New York City by himself – an hour train ride away. But his greatest asset, I think, is that he is a kind loving person.