[427] Bright Future In Sight For Blind MTSU Graduate-To-Be

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 19, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

BRIGHT FUTURE IN SIGHT FOR BLIND MTSU GRADUATE-TO-BE
‘MTSU on the Record’ Shines Spotlight on Communication-minded Meaghan Bynum

(MURFREESBORO) – MTSU senior Meaghan Bynum, whose lifelong struggle with vision impairment has not stymied her educational career, and her guide dog, Whitney, will be the guests on “MTSU on the Record” with host Gina Logue at 8 a.m. this Sunday, April 24, on WMOT-FM (89.5 and wmot.org).
Bynum, an English major from Wartrace, is slated to graduate next month. She intends to pursue a master’s degree in communication. She is almost totally blind due to retinopathy of prematurity, a condition resulting from oxygen deprivation in premature babies. Nonetheless, she graduated from the Tennessee School for the Blind as the valedictorian of her class.
Bynum will discuss how new technology has enabled her to pursue her goals faster than she could reading in Braille and the pros and cons of using a guide dog to maneuver around campus.
To listen to previous programs, go to http://www.mtsu.edu/news/podcast/podcast2010.shtml. For more information about “MTSU on the Record,” contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.

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Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. Recently, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.