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All right.
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Welcome back to another episode of Comp Conversations Podcast. This
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is a podcast we've developed through DRI, where we discuss
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the world of workers' compensation. I am here today. My
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name is Jennifer White, and I'm here with Shane Dawson,
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who's a partner at Dinsmore & Scholl in Ohio. And
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we're delighted to have with us today, Meena Khan. She's
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a former Kids Chance of Virginia scholarship recipient. Her father
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suffered a serious workplace injury while he was working as
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a security guard. Mina received a Kids Chance Scholarship, and
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that helped her attend the University of Virginia, and she
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now lives and works in D.C. So we are doing
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this podcast as kind of a starter to our annual
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DRI meeting. We are doing a fundraiser there. We will
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be in D.C. for the DRI meeting. Our Workers' Comp
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SLC will be hosting a fundraiser charity event along with
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DRI Cares. That event is on Thursday, October 22nd. It's
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at City Taphouse, Penn Quarter from 4 to 6. It's
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walking distance from the DRI Hotel. This is our plug
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for our fundraiser. No RSVPs are needed. So just show up,
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you eat and drink, and the percentage of the proceeds
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of your purchase will go to Kids Chance of Virginia,
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which is a very worthy organization. So We are excited
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to have Mina here. We're excited about our upcoming charity fundraiser.
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Welcome Mina to Calm Conversations.
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Excited to be here. Thanks for having me, guys.
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Thank you.
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Mina, let's start off. Just give us a little bit
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of background. Tell us a little bit about yourself and
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tell us a little bit about your family.
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Yeah. So hi, everyone. My name is Mina Khan. I
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currently live in Arlington, Virginia. I have two older brothers,
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but I was actually born in Lahore, Pakistan. You know,
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my family came to America as refugees. Where we lived
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in Pakistan, it wasn't the safest for our family. So
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we were lucky enough to come to America and we
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settled in Arlington, Virginia, where I'm at right now, because
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a lot of our extended family's here. But then eventually
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we relocated to Woodbridge, Virginia, because it was a little
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bit more cost effective for an immigrant family. But besides that,
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I have two cats that live my life. I am
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obsessed with them. And yeah, live in Northern Virginia and
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live in the dream.
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All right. So share with us a little bit about
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what happened when your father was injured. We understand he
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was a security guard, but what happened that led to
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his workplace injury?
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Yeah. So like any other immigrant family, you know, our
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dads usually take on multiple jobs. My dad worked at
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many different places, but one of his jobs was actually
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as a security officer. And he was a security officer
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at a hotel called Virginian Suites. It's no longer open anymore.
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But one night he got a call from the front
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desk saying that there was a noise complaint about a
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party going on in one of the rooms. And my
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dad went to go check on it. And there was
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actually a man who was hosting a party. And he
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was belligerent. He was extremely drunk, probably on a bunch
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of drugs. And the man was really upset at my
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dad for telling them to quiet down a little bit.
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And he grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and
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started beating my dad with it until he was completely unconscious,
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was bleeding. It was really bad. And he actually fell
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into a coma. And when he came out of it,
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he he lost a lot of his memory. You know,
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he was hooked up to a bunch of tubes and
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he was in the hospital for months.
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Oh my gosh.
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Yeah.
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Now, how old were you when this happened?
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Yeah, I was five turning six. So I was really young.
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I have two older brothers that are older than me.
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So they were there as well. And my mom kind
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of had to deal with it all by herself. And
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she also they didn't really know English that well. So
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it was already hard for her to deal with that.
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So.
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Do you have any like specific strong memories that stand
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out from, from that time period?
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Yeah. I feel like the normal trauma response is to
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block a lot of it out. But what I do
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remember is like going to the hospital a lot and,
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you know, like the smell of the hospital, the lights
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of the hospital and, Like my mom, childcare is super
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expensive even now and it's even more expensive now, but
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then she would just take me with her. And I
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remember taking my like little VTech laptop and my Barbie
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dolls and my toys with me and the nurses were
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super nice to me. And, you know, I remember like
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just being there. And I remember when my dad actually
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woke up from the coma, he didn't call me my name.
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He called me my cousin's name. And that really like
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hurt really badly. I remember that. So, yeah.
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Now, those of us who practice in this area all
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the time, I mean, we know, okay, workers' compensation, it's
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supposed to provide financially for families like yours, where you've
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had some sort of, there's an injury like that. And
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you'd like to think that at that age, you might've
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been somewhat insulated from it, but I'm sure that you
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have some memory, or at least it's been explained to
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you some of the impacts that this had. Do you recall,
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or has it been explained like the financial impacts this had? Yeah. Yeah.
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Um, my mom was actually a full-time mom. Love full-time moms.
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My mom was a full-time mom at the time, but
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she couldn't do that anymore. Um, she had to, she
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didn't have a college degree, so she just picked up,
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you know, random jobs around. She would drop us off
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at one of our close neighbor's house after school. Um,
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you know, she picked up small jobs here and there and,
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you know, it really felt like we were isolated. It
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felt like, you know, we were like struggling to keep
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the lights on. We were already an immigrant family. So
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things came harder for her. Um, she didn't really speak
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English that much. So she was struggling. She was going
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to us to get help on her GED. She was
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hoping to get her GED. She was asking my brother
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who was just few years older than me on how
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she could do that. Um, You know, she was it
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was financially really difficult for us. You know, we we
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would like I don't know. It was it was hard.
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Yeah. And was that struggle still continuing as you got
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old enough to start thinking about college and what came
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after high school?
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Yeah. So we took on jobs. Me and my brothers,
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we all got part-time jobs. My brother worked at Subway
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and Dairy Queen at the same time. And then my
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other brother worked at a pizza restaurant. I worked at
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a pizza restaurant. My dad was left permanently disabled, so
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he couldn't work anymore. And then my mom started working
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retail jobs. And so we kind of were all working
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together to keep the lights on. So yeah, And we
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were also working through this court case as well. We
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were working on getting through this whole workers' comp situation.
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So it was difficult because we would always put it
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in Google Translate for my mom to be like, what
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does this even mean? What are they talking about? What
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are all these legal terms? And so we were helping
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her through all of that. And so, yeah, we took
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on a lot of the financial burden as well.
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How did you first learn about Kids Chance?
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Yeah, so my mom was really scared. She was really scared.
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Her dream for us was always to go to college
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and not be like her and become independent. And so
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she was like, where can I go? What can I do?
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So she went to a guidance counselor and she was like, hey,
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you know our situation. You know why my son is
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leaving school sometimes out of nowhere to go see his
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dad in the hospital. You know what's going on. What
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can we do? And she was like, honestly, I don't know.
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Let me do some research. Let me see what I
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can do. And so after a lot of Googling and
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a lot of, you know, research, she found out about
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Kids Chance. John Burke actually at the time was, you know,
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in charge of the scholarship. And, you know, we started
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communicating with him and that's how we learned about Kids Chance.
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What kind of process did you have to go through
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to get the scholarships?
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Honestly, it was really, it was a really streamlined process,
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I'd say. Like it was, it was handled with a
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lot of empathy because I can imagine you all like
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go through a bunch of, you know, cases like this
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and you, you got, you get to experience families that
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have been through similar situations. But John Burke was really
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like our rock through this. He kind of like helped
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us through the process. He told us what we needed
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to upload, the forms, et cetera. And Um, it was
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very easy. I think like the hardest part was like
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getting to know about it in the first place. Not
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many people know about the scholarship. Um, so I think
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that was the hardest part of it.
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What did it mean to you at the time to
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receive that kind of scholarship?
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Yeah, I think it, it really just gave us hope.
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It gave us hope that, you know, felt like a
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burden was being lifted off our chest. We thought that
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we were just going to go straight into the workforce
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or like go to a trades or do something on
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the more cost effective route for us. And so, you know,
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kids chance really, I don't know, it felt like a
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network of people that actually cared about us and didn't
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make us feel isolated. Like my mom could like, like
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we were talking to John Burke as if he was
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like a family member, you know what I mean? Like,
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you know, very, it was handled with a lot of empathy.
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Was there a moment when you realized that the scholarship
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was going to change your future?
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Yeah, actually my first year at UVA, my first year
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at UVA, I thankfully could go to UVA on the
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Pell Grant and because of kids chance. And my first
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year I got a refund check and I was like,
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Oh my gosh, like I don't need to pay for
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my books. Like I, I don't need to ask for help.
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I don't need to, you know, like, I don't, I
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don't need to like put more burden on my brothers.
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My brothers were finally out of college at that point.
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I was planning on asking them for money. And instead
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I could pay for my books myself. I could pay
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for my housing myself. I could, you know, do all
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this stuff myself and not have to rely on my
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parents or my brothers.
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What kind of message did that send to you that,
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this organization cared enough to invest in your future.
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I think it made me think of like the other
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kids that don't know about this scholarship, honestly. Like I, I,
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I was talking to one of my friends in college
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and she was like, yeah, actually my dad also went
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through something similar and I was, she didn't know about it.
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And then she ended up applying for it, but you know,
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it made me think about the other kids that are
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also in similar situations and like, looking like even going
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to the different events that kids chance host you know
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it's like okay like there's so many other kids just
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like us who have been through so many similar things
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that this scholarship is helping i don't know it put
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things into perspective and made me feel less like alone.
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Right and you've mentioned john burke had made an impression
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on you uh became like family um what kind of other,
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did you have any other kind of interactions like that
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with kids? Yeah.
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Even now, honestly, like John Burke, John Goldwater, Kevin Reap,
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there's so many more people on the board donors that come,
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you know, we were just at the golf event and
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it really felt like, like people were coming up to
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us asking about our lives now, like our families. My
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brother just had a kid, you know, like asking about him, like,
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It feels like family, honestly. And like, we didn't even
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know them before the scholarship, but I feel like they've
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been part of our life for so long. And my
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mom even asked about them. My dad asked about them. Like,
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how are they doing? And it's extended family at this point.
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I mean, tell us a little bit about what was
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that life like at UVA?
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Yeah. Honestly, the first year was horrible for me. I
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missed my family a lot. Um, you know, my brother
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went to George Mason, so he was able to be
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closer to home. Um, I, I miss my family a lot.
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I was like, I don't fit in here. I don't
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know anyone else like me here. I'm a very, I'm
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very different. I don't know. I'm, I'm naturally a very
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extroverted person. So I'm like, oh, I can fit in anywhere.
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But I think it was my family that I was
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missing the most. Um, and so, you know, after the
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first year went on COVID actually hit. So I was like, okay,
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this is great. Like I have to stay at home anyways.
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So I was with my family and then I ended
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up going back and I finally found my niche in psychology.
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I was like, wait, like my dad has so many things,
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you know, he thinks about so much of his brain
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chemistry has changed because of his brain injury. And I
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was like, let me study psychology. Let me learn a
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little bit more about what's going on with him. And
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you know, that's where I kind of like, I started
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like leaning more into the academic piece of it. But
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UVA overall, I can't rave about UVA enough. UVA is
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an amazing school. I took on a job there as well.
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And I was, I worked as a waitress to get
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some extra money as well. But yeah, life at UVA
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was awesome. I honestly miss it. But now we got
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to go into the real world.
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So yes, yes. All of us have had to do
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that at one point or another. We, we had to,
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we had to get out of the, uh, of college
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and go to the real world.
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Yeah.
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And obviously you made it through. So what, tell us
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a little bit now professionally, what are you doing now
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that you had to leave UVA?
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Yeah. So I thought I was going to do something
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within psychology. And then I was like, you know, I
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love talking to people. I love like I don't know,
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like solving people's problems, not even just on the psychology route.
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So I took a job as an account executive in
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the Northern Virginia area, Washington DC, if you will. And
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I work with like IT managers, data center managers, engineering
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managers to work on their bandwidth issues, staffing issues, et cetera.
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Go to a lot of networking events, talk to a
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lot of people. It's a lot of fun for me.
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Cool. So as you sit there today, being able to
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look back with the benefit of hindsight, how would you
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say the access, opening those doors to higher education, specifically
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those doors at UVA, how do you see that that
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kind of changed the path that your life has gone
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down so far?
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Yeah, it changed everything. It changed everything. Like I wouldn't
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have been to college. I definitely would not have been
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to college. My brothers wouldn't have been to college. We
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would probably be trying to keep our family afloat. Like
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we did not have enough money. Like my dad was
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a sole provider. So yeah, it changed everything for us.
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You know, we got to go to college. We got
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to fulfill not only our own dreams, but our mom's dreams.
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And we got to now look at us like, you know,
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we've all graduated. Now we're helping our parents out with
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the money we earn from working our own jobs. So
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it changed everything for us.
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And this is one of those things where obviously you
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would not, you never wish for the injury to happen, right?
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If you could not have it happen, you wouldn't want
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that to have happened to your dad. But Kids Chance
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wouldn't have been part of your life in that case.
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Talk a little bit about the role then that Kids Chance,
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because that happened to you and your father, what role
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then is Kids Chance as an organization played for you
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now moving forward.
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In your life? I feel like it's taught me, I
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don't know, I think kids chance, like there's no need
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for the scholarship at the end of the day. Like,
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you know what I mean? Like they didn't need to
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create the scholarship for people. And I feel like it's
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just a, it's a bunch of people that care about people.
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And I think that's the most impactful thing. Like, I don't,
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I don't even know how to put it into words.
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Like these are all strangers and they are donating money
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to help a child go through school. And that child
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is so isolated. They don't even know if they can
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go to school. They don't know if this is going
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to be their future. And I think like, it just
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shows that people care and people are kind and people
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want to help others succeed. And I think it's, it's
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made me more empathetic and it's made me more, you know,
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grateful for the position that I'm in and the position
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that my brothers and family are in.
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Yeah.
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The, yeah, the injury was horrible. And, you know, it's
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led to like a lot of emotional and traumatic things
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for us, but we've gained so many, you know, people
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that care about us. We care, you know, like these
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people check in on us all the time and it's
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just amazing. It's amazing.
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You know, most of our listeners work in workers' compensation.
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They do claims, they're attorneys, employers, adjusters. What would you
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want them to know about the families behind the claim files?
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Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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There's a family behind the claim. There's a family behind
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the claim. There are kids that are also going through something.
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There's families. There's, you know, there's extended families. There's children
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that are growing up and don't get to experience everything.
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I think back to like before my dad was injured,
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he was in the middle of teaching me how to
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ride a bike and then he couldn't teach me how
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to ride a bike. And I think about like a
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lot of the things that I wasn't able to do And,
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you know, I don't know, like, I think, you know,
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one person is hurt, but multiple people are hurt from that.
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There's like a lot of tears and emotions and a
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lot of things that go into it. And it's a
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very sensitive place to be in. So I applaud you
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guys for being in this, you know, type of field.
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But there's so much so many more people that are
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impacted and thinking about the family is sometimes not always
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top of mind, but there is a whole other side
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of it.
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What would you say to the to our listeners who
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are considering supporting kids chance?
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Yeah. Yeah, this I feel like the scholarship definitely like
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turned my entire entire family's life around, you know, because
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of the scholarship. I'm now able to, you know, support
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my family instead of watching them struggle and continue to
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watch them struggle. And so, you know, when you are
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supporting kids chance, you're not just writing a check. You're,
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you know, rewriting a whole family's future. And there's a
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lot of hope that goes into it. And you gave
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our family hope. And if you are thinking about supporting
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Kids Chance, you should.
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Good, good answer. That's what we say to support Kids Chance.
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But if you could if you could say one thing
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directly to the people who donated to Kids Chance and
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help fund your scholarship, what would that be?
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Yeah, I said this at the golf tournament, but like,
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just thank you. Thank you for being there. Thank you
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for giving us hope. Thank you for being a part
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of our story about our family. Thank you for changing
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our story. Yeah, I feel like you made our dreams
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come true.
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Nina, we want to thank you so much for being
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on here today, sharing your story, sharing your family's story.
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Like you said, you're not alone. There's other kids out
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there like you. and hopefully this will help inspire others
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to get involved. Hopefully somebody will hear about our fundraiser,
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and that's one way they can get involved quickly to
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help with Kids Chance Virginia. So I'm going to give
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a plug for that one more time here. So the
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workers' comp committee, event that's going to be Thursday, October
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22nd at the City Tap House, Penn Quarter, Washington, D.C.,
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901 9th Street NW from 4 to 6 p.m. You
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don't have to RSVP. Just show up, eat, drink, be merry.
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But it's spend, open those wallets because a percent of
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the proceeds is going to Kids Chance Virginia. So we
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encourage you to come, bring a friend, bring a dozen. Obviously,
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you've heard, you know, it's a wonderful cause. And if
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you're not there in D.C., you can't come to this.
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Kids Chance is all across the country. I mean, there's
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Kids Chance Virginia, but I know we've got Chapter in
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Ohio and that's involved with a golf outing organization that
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we do here. So we would encourage any of our
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listeners to check out chapters in your own state for
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opportunities to get involved, give back, to learn more. Mina,
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your story just reminds us that while the individual claims
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that a lot of us may be involved in You know,
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they come, they go, they close. But the impact, your
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family deals with this for years. And Kids Chance continues
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to touch the lives of those families for many of
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those years after those of us that may practice in
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the area are done with the claim. Again, thank you
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for reminding us of that. And again, please join us
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and support this good effort at our annual conference in D.C. Mina,
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thanks again.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you, Mina.
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All right.
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Welcome back to another episode of Comp Conversations Podcast. This
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is a podcast we've developed through DRI, where we discuss
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the world of workers' compensation. I am here today. My
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00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:33.420
name is Jennifer White, and I'm here with Shane Dawson,
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who's a partner at Dinsmore & Scholl in Ohio. And
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we're delighted to have with us today, Meena Khan. She's
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a former Kids Chance of Virginia scholarship recipient. Her father
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suffered a serious workplace injury while he was working as
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a security guard. Mina received a Kids Chance Scholarship, and
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that helped her attend the University of Virginia, and she
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now lives and works in D.C. So we are doing
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this podcast as kind of a starter to our annual
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DRI meeting. We are doing a fundraiser there. We will
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be in D.C. for the DRI meeting. Our Workers' Comp
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SLC will be hosting a fundraiser charity event along with
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DRI Cares. That event is on Thursday, October 22nd. It's
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at City Taphouse, Penn Quarter from 4 to 6. It's
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walking distance from the DRI Hotel. This is our plug
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for our fundraiser. No RSVPs are needed. So just show up,
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you eat and drink, and the percentage of the proceeds
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of your purchase will go to Kids Chance of Virginia,
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which is a very worthy organization. So We are excited
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to have Mina here. We're excited about our upcoming charity fundraiser.
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Welcome Mina to Calm Conversations.
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Excited to be here. Thanks for having me, guys.
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Thank you.
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Mina, let's start off. Just give us a little bit
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of background. Tell us a little bit about yourself and
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tell us a little bit about your family.
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Yeah. So hi, everyone. My name is Mina Khan. I
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currently live in Arlington, Virginia. I have two older brothers,
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but I was actually born in Lahore, Pakistan. You know,
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my family came to America as refugees. Where we lived
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in Pakistan, it wasn't the safest for our family. So
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we were lucky enough to come to America and we
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settled in Arlington, Virginia, where I'm at right now, because
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a lot of our extended family's here. But then eventually
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we relocated to Woodbridge, Virginia, because it was a little
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bit more cost effective for an immigrant family. But besides that,
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I have two cats that live my life. I am
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obsessed with them. And yeah, live in Northern Virginia and
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live in the dream.
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All right. So share with us a little bit about
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what happened when your father was injured. We understand he
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was a security guard, but what happened that led to
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his workplace injury?
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Yeah. So like any other immigrant family, you know, our
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dads usually take on multiple jobs. My dad worked at
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many different places, but one of his jobs was actually
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as a security officer. And he was a security officer
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at a hotel called Virginian Suites. It's no longer open anymore.
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But one night he got a call from the front
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desk saying that there was a noise complaint about a
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party going on in one of the rooms. And my
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dad went to go check on it. And there was
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actually a man who was hosting a party. And he
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was belligerent. He was extremely drunk, probably on a bunch
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of drugs. And the man was really upset at my
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dad for telling them to quiet down a little bit.
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And he grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and
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started beating my dad with it until he was completely unconscious,
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was bleeding. It was really bad. And he actually fell
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into a coma. And when he came out of it,
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he he lost a lot of his memory. You know,
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he was hooked up to a bunch of tubes and
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he was in the hospital for months.
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Oh my gosh.
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Yeah.
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Now, how old were you when this happened?
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Yeah, I was five turning six. So I was really young.
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I have two older brothers that are older than me.
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So they were there as well. And my mom kind
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of had to deal with it all by herself. And
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she also they didn't really know English that well. So
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it was already hard for her to deal with that.
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So.
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Do you have any like specific strong memories that stand
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out from, from that time period?
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Yeah. I feel like the normal trauma response is to
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block a lot of it out. But what I do
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remember is like going to the hospital a lot and,
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you know, like the smell of the hospital, the lights
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of the hospital and, Like my mom, childcare is super
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expensive even now and it's even more expensive now, but
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then she would just take me with her. And I
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remember taking my like little VTech laptop and my Barbie
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dolls and my toys with me and the nurses were
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super nice to me. And, you know, I remember like
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just being there. And I remember when my dad actually
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woke up from the coma, he didn't call me my name.
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He called me my cousin's name. And that really like
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hurt really badly. I remember that. So, yeah.
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Now, those of us who practice in this area all
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the time, I mean, we know, okay, workers' compensation, it's
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supposed to provide financially for families like yours, where you've
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had some sort of, there's an injury like that. And
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you'd like to think that at that age, you might've
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been somewhat insulated from it, but I'm sure that you
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have some memory, or at least it's been explained to
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you some of the impacts that this had. Do you recall,
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or has it been explained like the financial impacts this had? Yeah. Yeah.
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Um, my mom was actually a full-time mom. Love full-time moms.
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My mom was a full-time mom at the time, but
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she couldn't do that anymore. Um, she had to, she
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didn't have a college degree, so she just picked up,
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you know, random jobs around. She would drop us off
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at one of our close neighbor's house after school. Um,
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you know, she picked up small jobs here and there and,
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you know, it really felt like we were isolated. It
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felt like, you know, we were like struggling to keep
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the lights on. We were already an immigrant family. So
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things came harder for her. Um, she didn't really speak
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English that much. So she was struggling. She was going
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to us to get help on her GED. She was
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hoping to get her GED. She was asking my brother
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who was just few years older than me on how
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she could do that. Um, You know, she was it
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was financially really difficult for us. You know, we we
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would like I don't know. It was it was hard.
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Yeah. And was that struggle still continuing as you got
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old enough to start thinking about college and what came
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after high school?
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Yeah. So we took on jobs. Me and my brothers,
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we all got part-time jobs. My brother worked at Subway
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and Dairy Queen at the same time. And then my
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other brother worked at a pizza restaurant. I worked at
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a pizza restaurant. My dad was left permanently disabled, so
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he couldn't work anymore. And then my mom started working
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retail jobs. And so we kind of were all working
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together to keep the lights on. So yeah, And we
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were also working through this court case as well. We
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were working on getting through this whole workers' comp situation.
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So it was difficult because we would always put it
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in Google Translate for my mom to be like, what
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does this even mean? What are they talking about? What
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are all these legal terms? And so we were helping
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her through all of that. And so, yeah, we took
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on a lot of the financial burden as well.
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How did you first learn about Kids Chance?
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Yeah, so my mom was really scared. She was really scared.
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Her dream for us was always to go to college
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and not be like her and become independent. And so
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she was like, where can I go? What can I do?
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So she went to a guidance counselor and she was like, hey,
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you know our situation. You know why my son is
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leaving school sometimes out of nowhere to go see his
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dad in the hospital. You know what's going on. What
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can we do? And she was like, honestly, I don't know.
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Let me do some research. Let me see what I
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can do. And so after a lot of Googling and
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a lot of, you know, research, she found out about
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Kids Chance. John Burke actually at the time was, you know,
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in charge of the scholarship. And, you know, we started
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communicating with him and that's how we learned about Kids Chance.
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What kind of process did you have to go through
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to get the scholarships?
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Honestly, it was really, it was a really streamlined process,
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I'd say. Like it was, it was handled with a
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lot of empathy because I can imagine you all like
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go through a bunch of, you know, cases like this
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and you, you got, you get to experience families that
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have been through similar situations. But John Burke was really
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like our rock through this. He kind of like helped
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us through the process. He told us what we needed
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to upload, the forms, et cetera. And Um, it was
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very easy. I think like the hardest part was like
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getting to know about it in the first place. Not
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many people know about the scholarship. Um, so I think
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that was the hardest part of it.
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What did it mean to you at the time to
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receive that kind of scholarship?
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Yeah, I think it, it really just gave us hope.
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It gave us hope that, you know, felt like a
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burden was being lifted off our chest. We thought that
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we were just going to go straight into the workforce
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or like go to a trades or do something on
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the more cost effective route for us. And so, you know,
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kids chance really, I don't know, it felt like a
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network of people that actually cared about us and didn't
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make us feel isolated. Like my mom could like, like
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we were talking to John Burke as if he was
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like a family member, you know what I mean? Like,
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you know, very, it was handled with a lot of empathy.
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Was there a moment when you realized that the scholarship
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was going to change your future?
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Yeah, actually my first year at UVA, my first year
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at UVA, I thankfully could go to UVA on the
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Pell Grant and because of kids chance. And my first
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year I got a refund check and I was like,
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Oh my gosh, like I don't need to pay for
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my books. Like I, I don't need to ask for help.
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I don't need to, you know, like, I don't, I
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don't need to like put more burden on my brothers.
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My brothers were finally out of college at that point.
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I was planning on asking them for money. And instead
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I could pay for my books myself. I could pay
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for my housing myself. I could, you know, do all
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this stuff myself and not have to rely on my
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parents or my brothers.
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What kind of message did that send to you that,
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this organization cared enough to invest in your future.
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I think it made me think of like the other
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kids that don't know about this scholarship, honestly. Like I, I,
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I was talking to one of my friends in college
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and she was like, yeah, actually my dad also went
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through something similar and I was, she didn't know about it.
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And then she ended up applying for it, but you know,
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it made me think about the other kids that are
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also in similar situations and like, looking like even going
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to the different events that kids chance host you know
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it's like okay like there's so many other kids just
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like us who have been through so many similar things
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that this scholarship is helping i don't know it put
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things into perspective and made me feel less like alone.
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Right and you've mentioned john burke had made an impression
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on you uh became like family um what kind of other,
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did you have any other kind of interactions like that
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with kids? Yeah.
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Even now, honestly, like John Burke, John Goldwater, Kevin Reap,
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there's so many more people on the board donors that come,
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you know, we were just at the golf event and
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it really felt like, like people were coming up to
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us asking about our lives now, like our families. My
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brother just had a kid, you know, like asking about him, like,
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It feels like family, honestly. And like, we didn't even
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know them before the scholarship, but I feel like they've
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been part of our life for so long. And my
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mom even asked about them. My dad asked about them. Like,
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how are they doing? And it's extended family at this point.
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I mean, tell us a little bit about what was
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that life like at UVA?
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Yeah. Honestly, the first year was horrible for me. I
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missed my family a lot. Um, you know, my brother
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went to George Mason, so he was able to be
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closer to home. Um, I, I miss my family a lot.
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I was like, I don't fit in here. I don't
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know anyone else like me here. I'm a very, I'm
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very different. I don't know. I'm, I'm naturally a very
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extroverted person. So I'm like, oh, I can fit in anywhere.
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But I think it was my family that I was
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missing the most. Um, and so, you know, after the
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first year went on COVID actually hit. So I was like, okay,
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this is great. Like I have to stay at home anyways.
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So I was with my family and then I ended
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up going back and I finally found my niche in psychology.
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I was like, wait, like my dad has so many things,
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you know, he thinks about so much of his brain
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chemistry has changed because of his brain injury. And I
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was like, let me study psychology. Let me learn a
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little bit more about what's going on with him. And
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you know, that's where I kind of like, I started
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like leaning more into the academic piece of it. But
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UVA overall, I can't rave about UVA enough. UVA is
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an amazing school. I took on a job there as well.
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And I was, I worked as a waitress to get
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some extra money as well. But yeah, life at UVA
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was awesome. I honestly miss it. But now we got
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to go into the real world.
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So yes, yes. All of us have had to do
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that at one point or another. We, we had to,
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we had to get out of the, uh, of college
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and go to the real world.
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Yeah.
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And obviously you made it through. So what, tell us
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a little bit now professionally, what are you doing now
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that you had to leave UVA?
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Yeah. So I thought I was going to do something
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within psychology. And then I was like, you know, I
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love talking to people. I love like I don't know,
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like solving people's problems, not even just on the psychology route.
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So I took a job as an account executive in
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the Northern Virginia area, Washington DC, if you will. And
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I work with like IT managers, data center managers, engineering
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managers to work on their bandwidth issues, staffing issues, et cetera.
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Go to a lot of networking events, talk to a
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lot of people. It's a lot of fun for me.
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Cool. So as you sit there today, being able to
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look back with the benefit of hindsight, how would you
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say the access, opening those doors to higher education, specifically
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those doors at UVA, how do you see that that
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kind of changed the path that your life has gone
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down so far?
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Yeah, it changed everything. It changed everything. Like I wouldn't
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have been to college. I definitely would not have been
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to college. My brothers wouldn't have been to college. We
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would probably be trying to keep our family afloat. Like
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we did not have enough money. Like my dad was
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a sole provider. So yeah, it changed everything for us.
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You know, we got to go to college. We got
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to fulfill not only our own dreams, but our mom's dreams.
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And we got to now look at us like, you know,
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we've all graduated. Now we're helping our parents out with
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the money we earn from working our own jobs. So
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it changed everything for us.
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And this is one of those things where obviously you
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would not, you never wish for the injury to happen, right?
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If you could not have it happen, you wouldn't want
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that to have happened to your dad. But Kids Chance
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wouldn't have been part of your life in that case.
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Talk a little bit about the role then that Kids Chance,
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because that happened to you and your father, what role
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then is Kids Chance as an organization played for you
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now moving forward.
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In your life? I feel like it's taught me, I
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don't know, I think kids chance, like there's no need
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for the scholarship at the end of the day. Like,
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you know what I mean? Like they didn't need to
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create the scholarship for people. And I feel like it's
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just a, it's a bunch of people that care about people.
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And I think that's the most impactful thing. Like, I don't,
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I don't even know how to put it into words.
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Like these are all strangers and they are donating money
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to help a child go through school. And that child
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is so isolated. They don't even know if they can
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go to school. They don't know if this is going
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to be their future. And I think like, it just
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shows that people care and people are kind and people
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want to help others succeed. And I think it's, it's
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made me more empathetic and it's made me more, you know,
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grateful for the position that I'm in and the position
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that my brothers and family are in.
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Yeah.
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The, yeah, the injury was horrible. And, you know, it's
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led to like a lot of emotional and traumatic things
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for us, but we've gained so many, you know, people
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that care about us. We care, you know, like these
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people check in on us all the time and it's
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just amazing. It's amazing.
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You know, most of our listeners work in workers' compensation.
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They do claims, they're attorneys, employers, adjusters. What would you
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want them to know about the families behind the claim files?
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Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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There's a family behind the claim. There's a family behind
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the claim. There are kids that are also going through something.
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There's families. There's, you know, there's extended families. There's children
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that are growing up and don't get to experience everything.
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I think back to like before my dad was injured,
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he was in the middle of teaching me how to
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ride a bike and then he couldn't teach me how
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to ride a bike. And I think about like a
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lot of the things that I wasn't able to do And,
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you know, I don't know, like, I think, you know,
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one person is hurt, but multiple people are hurt from that.
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There's like a lot of tears and emotions and a
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lot of things that go into it. And it's a
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very sensitive place to be in. So I applaud you
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guys for being in this, you know, type of field.
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But there's so much so many more people that are
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impacted and thinking about the family is sometimes not always
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top of mind, but there is a whole other side
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of it.
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What would you say to the to our listeners who
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are considering supporting kids chance?
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Yeah. Yeah, this I feel like the scholarship definitely like
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turned my entire entire family's life around, you know, because
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of the scholarship. I'm now able to, you know, support
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my family instead of watching them struggle and continue to
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watch them struggle. And so, you know, when you are
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supporting kids chance, you're not just writing a check. You're,
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you know, rewriting a whole family's future. And there's a
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lot of hope that goes into it. And you gave
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our family hope. And if you are thinking about supporting
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Kids Chance, you should.
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Good, good answer. That's what we say to support Kids Chance.
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But if you could if you could say one thing
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directly to the people who donated to Kids Chance and
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help fund your scholarship, what would that be?
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Yeah, I said this at the golf tournament, but like,
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just thank you. Thank you for being there. Thank you
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for giving us hope. Thank you for being a part
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of our story about our family. Thank you for changing
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our story. Yeah, I feel like you made our dreams
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come true.
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Nina, we want to thank you so much for being
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on here today, sharing your story, sharing your family's story.
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Like you said, you're not alone. There's other kids out
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there like you. and hopefully this will help inspire others
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to get involved. Hopefully somebody will hear about our fundraiser,
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and that's one way they can get involved quickly to
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help with Kids Chance Virginia. So I'm going to give
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a plug for that one more time here. So the
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workers' comp committee, event that's going to be Thursday, October
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22nd at the City Tap House, Penn Quarter, Washington, D.C.,
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901 9th Street NW from 4 to 6 p.m. You
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don't have to RSVP. Just show up, eat, drink, be merry.
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But it's spend, open those wallets because a percent of
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the proceeds is going to Kids Chance Virginia. So we
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encourage you to come, bring a friend, bring a dozen. Obviously,
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you've heard, you know, it's a wonderful cause. And if
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you're not there in D.C., you can't come to this.
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Kids Chance is all across the country. I mean, there's
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Kids Chance Virginia, but I know we've got Chapter in
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Ohio and that's involved with a golf outing organization that
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we do here. So we would encourage any of our
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listeners to check out chapters in your own state for
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opportunities to get involved, give back, to learn more. Mina,
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your story just reminds us that while the individual claims
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that a lot of us may be involved in You know,
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they come, they go, they close. But the impact, your
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family deals with this for years. And Kids Chance continues
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to touch the lives of those families for many of
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those years after those of us that may practice in
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the area are done with the claim. Again, thank you
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for reminding us of that. And again, please join us
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and support this good effort at our annual conference in D.C. Mina,
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thanks again.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you, Mina.
