Full circle

Donning a cap and gown in the middle of December is not the most traditional way to graduate.

But for Katie Savage, nothing has exactly been conventional since unexpectedly losing her left leg during surgery at UNC Hospitals when she was 14 years old.

By joining more than 2,100 other graduating University of North Carolina students at the annual Winter Commencement ceremony at the Dean E. Smith Center, Savage’s journey came full circle Sunday afternoon. She was presented her bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of Arts and Sciences mere minutes from where she learned to walk again.

“I’m thrilled,” Savage, a native of Durham, N.C., said days before the ceremony. “It means a lot of things that I’m still trying to process. I never thought that I would be here. It’s been life changing. I don’t see myself the same way as I did when I got here. I have changed so much.

“… It’s bittersweet and humbling. A lot is coming full circle because this is where my journey started.”

Savage’s connection with the UNC-Chapel Hill community happened unexpectedly. Complications during a heart surgery caused a blood clot in the leg and forced doctors to swiftly amputate the limb. The teenager spent her recovery and rehabilitation in Chapel Hill, learning to walk with a prosthetic leg on the steps of Kenan Stadium.

Before the surgery, Carolina wasn’t even on Savage’s radar, but the university and its students began to represent stability and normalcy for her. After that, she had her eyes set on attending UNC-Chapel Hill.

“I always wanted to come here,” she said. “This was the only place I wanted to be.”

Savage met her goal in 2012 when she transferred to Carolina from Central Carolina Community College. Soon after, she turned her attention to making the campus a more welcoming place for students with disabilities.

She joined the Carolina Center for Public Service’s Buckley Public Service Scholars program in 2013 and launched Advocates for Carolina — the university’s first organization for students with disabilities.

“Katie expressed to me feeling unsupported, and perhaps even invisible at times, when she first came to Carolina as a student with a disability,” said Ryan Nilsen, program officer for the Buckley Public Service Scholars program. “In her time here and through her work with Advocates for Carolina, I think that she has helped make some significant strides in making the community of students with disabilities more connected and visible.”

The goal of the Advocates for Carolina is to celebrate diversity, including all disabilities, and bring more awareness, accessibility and education through events such as “This Able Life” exhibit, which featured photos and narratives written by students.

Over the course of two years, she built the foundation of the program and brought the issues to the forefront of conversation. But Savage said there is still work to be done and hopes that future students will continue to make strides in improving the lives of UNC-Chapel Hill students with disabilities.

“I feel like there was a lot more that could be done,” Savage said. “I think the conversations around disabilities are going to continue, which I feel is huge. I feel like I’ve contributed to our campus talking about something that is impacting so many people.

“This is a dialogue that is not going to stop. That really impacts everything because if we’re silent about something, nothing will ever get done.”

After graduation, Savage is hoping to continue her time at Chapel Hill and attend graduate school at Carolina. Ultimately, she wants to be in a role to influence policy and help people with disabilities have access to the resources they need.

“I want to advocate for people,” she said. “I want to help change things because this is my reality too.”

But after a journey with several unexpected turns, Savage was simply focused on the immediate future of walking across the stage on Sunday afternoon. For her, the commencement not only celebrated her accomplishments in the classroom, but the winding and often difficult path.

“I feel like I’ve overcome so many fears, so many mental blockages and just a lot of things that I’ve carried with me from my past,” Savage said. “It’s really been a pretty healing experience being here. One of the greatest things that I am taking away is that when I look at myself in the mirror, I like who I am. I’m not seeing myself as that girl who lost her leg. I know that I am somebody. … I see myself as a whole person because of the special people that I met here.”

Updated December 14, 2014