Krissy Eich Email & Phone Number

I've worked in the human services field a long time considering the additional 18 years of life experience that comes with growing up with a sister with a disability. We all have a "why" explaining our career path and when a person learns that I have a sister with a disability, they figure that's my "why" in choosing this line of work. One might conclude my "why" is because I wanted to help people, or because I wanted to be an advocate for people with disabilities, or to be in a position to teach life skills and independence, etc. While that's true, it's not solely my “why”.My "why" is more of a list of TRUTHS I live by formed by both my life and career experience. 1) People Who Are Just Like Me Are Boring. A person with a "disability" is no different than comparing a person with green eyes to another person with brown eyes. If we all had green eyes, eye color would lose its sparkle. Beauty lives in the spaces where we're all different! 2) The Word "Disability" Is Crap. It's too bad society is so quick to make assumptions about a person's abilities based on opinions, labels, or diagnoses. In my book, People are People. Nobody has the ability to do everything and we ALL struggle to do things too. For example... I ENVY my sister's ability to lull a crabby baby back to sleep. Pure Magic. She's a life saver! 3) No Two Minds Think Alike (Thank Goodness For That!) Multiple times I've been saved by someone else's perspective on a situation. People with disabilities are people with perspective too! We limit ourselves to thinking there's only one way or a few approved ways to doing something correctly, when in reality, there are probably a thousand different ways! We all see things from different points of view and They All Matter! So, I guess you could say my "why" is because I want to live in a world where difference is admired rather than shamed; where it is accepted instead of shunned, and where it is magnified to its greatest potential! And, the best way to change the world is to model the world in which you want to live!

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  Winona State University

  Social Work