Student Profile: Once Shy City High Senior Found Best Buddies in an Unexpected Place

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After a bit of a delay, (ok a several month long delay, my bad) I am continuing a series on Iowa City Patch where I try to get into the schools and talk to students about their experiences and have them talk about their passions and interests and future plans in their own voice. I have several other interviews done and others lined up, but if you have a student you think I should talk to, let me know at stephen.schmidt@patch.com.

For today's profile I spoke with Molly Powell-Littler, a City High Senior who overcame her shyness to become an outspoken advocate for people with disabilities-- not just for helping them through life, but for appreciating their value as human beings.

Previous Profile: Student Profile: City High School's David Maize Seeks His Next Stage

Molly Powell-Littler

Age: 18

Grade and School: Senior at Iowa City City High School

Activities: Being a student, Playing soccer, President of Best of Buddies

Future Plans: Education Major at University of Iowa, wants to specialize in early childhood special education.

Editor's Note: This is an edited an abridged version of the original interview.

Iowa City Patch: What are some of the main activities that you do at City High?

Molly Powell-Littler: Well, I'm the president of Best Buddies.

Iowa City Patch: Ok, what is Best Buddies?

Powell-Littler: Best Buddies is an organization that tries to develop friendships between students that have disabilities and students that do not have disabilities. So I just coordinate events for students with and without disabilities to come to and hang out together.
 
We also have one-to-one friendships which are called Buddy Pairs, and we require them to spend time with their buddies at least twice a month. That can mean going to a movie, going to a football game, anything like that.
It's just a way for students with disabilities to get more involved in the community and interact more with people.

Iowa City Patch: And I'm assuming the organization existed before you were here?

Powell-Littler: Yes. It's been at City High for about six or seven years. It was started by the special education teachers here. 

Best Buddies was founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver, so it's an international organization with a presence in several states. We went to a conference to get trained to be president this year, and it was interesting to see people from all over the country who are getting involved in Best Buddies, and it also included people from other countries, so it's becoming a pretty big education organization.

Iowa City Patch: Why did you decide you wanted to become involved?

Powell-Littler: Well…freshman year… I was really really shy in Junior High so I really didn't have that many friends. But freshman year the Best Buddies president came to speak to my English class about trying to recruit members, and I just thought it was something that sounded fun because as someone who was shy I didn't make a whole lot of friends. 

And I remember the motto at that time was something like "It Takes Two to Make a Friendship, It Takes One to Make a Difference," and there was one person in junior high who took the extra time to spend with me, to let me come out of my shell and let me develop as a person and as a friend. So I knew what an impact one person could make. Because of that experience, when I heard that slogan it really hit home for me. 

Then I was a buddy pair with a girl for a couple of years and then I just got switched to another person and it just kind of developed. It wasn't some sudden thing, it was just that the people that I met through Best Buddies were so much than what I think people think they are.

A lot of the time I think people with disabilities might get dismissed because they are different or because they might not have the same abilities as other people, but once you spend some time with them, like that person spent that time with me, you can see that they are just so much more than what people let them be.

Iowa City Patch: So you've described this hidden state of being that disabled people have that people don't necessarily see. What is it that you've discovered about them that you think people should know?

Powell-Littler: I think people see people with disabilities as "Disabled," instead of seeing them as their abilities, that's what we like to say.

Different people have different problems, just some people's problems are more apparent than others and the nature of these problems might separate them from the norm of society.

But I think that through Best Buddies, they get to be opened to their full potential.

Iowa City Patch: Do you think you would have known that if you had not known about this organization?

Powell-Littler: My mom's a guidance counselor, so she deals with a lot of different kinds of people, so I was never not open minded, but I'm sure that it's developed me quite a bit as a person, and to be more accepting of not just people with disabilities but people with different races and different cultures and what not.

Iowa City Patch: Can you explain in what way it's developed you?

Powell-Littler: Well I think instead of seeing different people through my own lens, with what I think is normal, I try to think about maybe what they think is normal and how they function. I think it's allowed me the perspective to step back and judge people as a whole, rather than just on what you see.

Iowa City Patch: And how's your shyness now?

Powell-Littler: I'm a lot less shy now. I can have a conversation -- my first interview, when I started Best Buddies was just awful. (laughs)

Iowa City Patch: In what way, what happened?

Powell-Littler: Well my answers were just really generic.

When you're in Best Buddies it's sort of hard to explain to other people, it's like "Why wouldn't everyone see how great these people we interact with are?" It's hard to express that to someone who hasn't experienced it.

Iowa City Patch: So you have your other aspects of student life, you have your Math Class and Science Class and things like that. How much of your life at City High is made up of being a part of Best Buddies, or is hanging out with your buddy partners just a part of your social life in a way?

Powell-Littler: I think it's a little bit of both. I'm known at City High as the "Best Buddies Girl" because I'm so involved in the program.

And there's the word, "retard" that's been a big problem so we're trying to fight back against that, that's a big part of Best Buddies as well. So if anyone says that word and I hear it I'm right on them, people recognize me as kind of an advocate for people who have disabilities I think, or someone who helps people who get made fun of for having a disability, which thankfully at City High we don't have a whole lot of.

Iowa City Patch: Can you explain to me why you feel it's your responsibility, why it's important to step up for people like that in those moments?

Powell-Littler: For me, it's because I have personal friend, he has cerebral palsy, his name is Alex. He can't speak, but he is probably the most inspirational person I've ever met, he's just so kind and he only has smiles and love to offer to people. But when someone uses a word like retard, it, it demoralizes him. And he can't say "Don't use that word, that hurts my feelings," because he actually can't speak.

So whenever I hear somebody say something like that I think, well I wouldn't want Alex to have to hear that, so I'm going to step up now, and try to prevent them from saying it later. And I know that people with disabilities can speak up for themselves in many cases, but just for me it goes back to my friend Alex.

Iowa City Patch: And going back to when you were telling me you were shy, and you just were thinking about joining Best Buddies, it sounded to me like you felt you needed it more than the other way around.

Powell-Littler: Yeah, I did. I think that's what happens with people who get involved in Best Buddies, they may start for a variety of reasons, they might need scholarship hours or some other reason, but then they meet the people and they just make a huge impact on your life.

And I'm not saying that happens to every single person, but I know some people who have made some friendships and it changes the way they think about people.

Iowa City Patch: Alright, now we're going to start the lightning round where I come up with more typical student profile questions to ask you off the top of my head.

Powell-Littler: OK. (laughs)

Iowa City Patch: Favorite Movie.

Powell-Littler: Oh gosh. "A Beautiful Mind."

Iowa City Patch: Favorite Book.

Powell-Littler: "Divergent." It's three books together, they're great.

Iowa City Patch: Favorite Food.

Powell-Littler: Mexican Food. El Ranchero, all the time.

Iowa City Patch: Favorite subject, in school.

Powell-Littler: Psychology.

Iowa City Patch: What position do you play in soccer?

Powell-Littler: I play forward or right mid-field.

Iowa City Patch: Favorite color.

Powell-Littler: Blue, light blue.

Iowa City Patch: Where are you going to school?

Powell-Littler: University of Iowa.

Iowa City Patch: Did you ever have any doubts?

Powell-Littler: No, I love Iowa City and I want to teach here.

Iowa City Patch: What do you love about Iowa City?

Powell-Littler: I love the diversity and I love how accepting the majority of the population is of that diversity.