Greenwich High School Rising Senior Hopes To Help Others

GREENWICH, CT — When Greenwich High School rising senior Rachael Roizer was 10 years old, she sat down one day after eating breakfast and opened her laptop.

As she started to type, she felt a strange but familiar sensation. Her stomach dropped, she was breathing quickly and her heart was racing.

In September of 2013, Rozier began to feel those symptoms every few weeks. Doctors had diagnosed her with anxiety, but that wasn't the case. In one episode, Rozier collapsed and lost consciousness. She was taken to the hospital.

Doctors found that Roizer had suffered a grand mal seizure, and she was diagnosed with benign rolandic epilepsy. But finally getting a grasp on what was happening to her left Roizer and her family with more questions than answers. A passion was sparked in Roizer.

"It was a very big deal at the time because it was kind of unknown why it was happening and the whole process of being hospitalized was very scary for me and my family," Roizer said. "In the end, it exposed me to a world I was never a part of. It made me want to give back to children. Being on the other side, I can see how good it would have been then to have a resource or something to learn about what I was going through."

Roizer's seizures have subsided since, but her passion blossomed.

Roizer began a project/website on her own time outside of school called "Explore Neuro".

Her website is a resource portal for children and teenagers who face neurological challenges. Through interviews with experts and articles on current research and strategies on understanding neurological disorders, Roizer has created digestible content that people can understand.

One interview with the father of an autistic child stands out to Roizer.

"That experience was really impactful for me because getting his perspective of what it's like to raise a child with autism and the whole educational process and all of that was so meaningful," she said.

Roizer started to volunteer with The Friendship Circle, too, first in New York City where she's originally from, and then in Fairfield County when she moved to Greenwich a couple years ago.

The Friendship Circle "aims to provide children and teenagers with special needs and their families with many of the social and recreational opportunities that are currently available to the general community."

"I've been working one on one with these children, and I really love the experience of creating a bond with a child and doing different activities with them, and spreading awareness and information about what these children deal with," Roizer said.

Roizer is also participating in an internship with a psychologist.

"I'm helping, observing, evaluating and assessing children, and creating diagnoses for their education and I think that's really important in creating accommodations that are needed for the children, and their families to understand how their brain works. That's been really impactful," Roizer said.

With her senior year beginning less than two weeks ago, Roizer is beginning the process of applying to colleges. She hopes to study neuroscience or cognitive science, as well as psychology, along with possibly women's studies or journalism.