Ronald J. Berger

At the age of sixteen  Melvin Juette was shot by a rival gang member.  He survived an experience that claims too many young black men's lives, but to what purpose? Melvin became determined to see this experience as transformational and to change the course of his life.  During rehabilitation,  Melvin encountered wheelchair basketball for the first time, and the sport soon became his passion. Basketball motivated him to go to college; success in sports and academics fueled his ambition. He earned a place on the U.S. national wheelchair basketball team and recognition as a world-class athlete.  Melvin's story is not about denying or overcoming a disability; it's about the hard work of making a life in which his disability is only one of the things that defines him.