Foreign exchange student Vera Babinszki is on a year-long adventure in the Unites States. She happens to be blind and nearly deaf. Her trip was made possible by the Youth for Understanding project.

Lisa Ferris of Hillsboro recently won the national “Richard Kinney Challenge of Living Award” from Hadley School for the Blind, which provides distance education programs for the blind and visually impaired. Ferris, who is deaf-blind, holds a master’s degree in special education of students with severe disabilities and deaf-blindness from the University of Kansas.