Major: Rehabilitation & Human Services
Award: Quigley Family Scholarship
Dominic A. ‘18 experienced a traumatic brain injury a few months before graduating from high school.
“When I woke up from the coma, I had been accepted to Penn State to begin my degree in Electrical Engineering at Abington,” he said.
“But after experiencing such an injury, everything about me changed. Not only did I have to learn to walk, talk, and function again, but also my personality, my aspirations, and my focus changed, too.”
Dominic enrolled and began taking classes in electrical engineering. However, he gradually realized it was no longer his passion.
“My own experience going through rehabilitation had formed a new foundation in my life,” he said of the realization that he wanted to help others, especially the elderly.
Dominic eventually withdrew from Penn State and began working as an aide at a rehabilitation center. Having found his career path, he re-enrolled at Abington and changed his major to Rehabilitation & Human Services. He will graduate from Abington this spring while working as an activities director at a nursing home in Philadelphia.
“I spend every day enhancing the quality of life of older adults,” he said.
In his senior year, Dominic received the Quigley Family Scholarship. Recently, he had the opportunity to meet Robert Quigley ’70, and they realized they had much in common. Dominic expressed his gratitude to Quigley, who endowed the scholarship, in a hand-written note, which he permitted us to reprint in part:
“You have lightened my financial burden, which allows me to focus more on the most important aspect of school: learning. Your generosity has only further inspired me to help others and give back to the community.”
Quigley enjoyed meeting Dominic very much. He recalled that he endowed the scholarship as “a way to pay it back by paying it forward for the financial aid both my son, Mike, and I received while attending Penn State.”