If I Only Had One Wish
If I Only Had One Wish
Kurt Moseley, who was diagnosed Deaf when he was six months old, was asked what he would want if he was granted one wish. He didn’t waste his wish on a million dollars. He didn’t ask for a brand new sports car. He didn’t even wish that he could have his hearing back. Kurt’s one and only wish was to be the first in his family to attend college with the hope that one day he’d be able to take care of his single, hard-working mother financially. The good news? Despite all of the obstacles he’s endured, Kurt has been accepted into college. The bad news? Due to his family’s financial situation, he cannot afford to go.
“Raising Kurt was very challenging because he was very angry that he was different from the other children, and as a mother I felt his pain, but I couldn’t understand what he was going through,” Keasha Green, Kurt’s mother says.
When Kurt was five years old, he attended Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf—an organization established in 1951 to help Deaf children unlock their potential through quality education. “The people at Mill Neck are like my family—I’d even say they spoiled me,” Kurt says. “I really connected with everyone because they were just like me, and as I got older, I realized I finally fit in.”
Kurt’s journey toward success wasn’t void of a few bumps. Being a child of a single mother, Kurt buried a lot of frustration and confusion, which sometimes affected his school work, but Green took the reins and made sure her son didn’t give up. “Kurt held his emotions inside when it came to his dad and he never understood why his dad wouldn't speak to him or acknowledge him,” she says. “So I became his father and taught him life lessons that he holds with him today.”
Attending college seemed out of reach for Kurt until he began to harness all of his energy and passion and put it into his school work. His mother says, “Kurt started to change his ways—caring more, studying more, asking the right questions—and that's when I started to see his potential.” And it seems that Kurt’s mother wasn’t the only one who saw potential in him.
Kurt’s wish of being accepted into college came true when he received a letter from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf: Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT/NTID). “I was crying with joy that my son made it!” explains Green of how she felt during that exact moment. Kurt’s sentiment was just as uplifting. “I was so very excited that I was good enough to go to college and that all my studying and hard work paid off,” he says.
Kurt planned to study the arts to become a producer, making 3D graphic form animations and movies, until his dreams suddenly came to an abrupt halt. When he was hit with the news that his college tuition would not be covered—a tuition that his mother just couldn’t afford—he was devastated.
And so it remains. Kurt’s one wish is still to attend college—and he’d very much like to find a way to get there. To support Kurt, and many children just like him, please visit www.millneck.org to learn more about Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf and to find out how you can help.
