Scholar undaunted by learning disability

Daniele Michi, the student who has brought Eurisko well within its goal, came to Canada out of his passion for knowledge. He was determined to be a scholar despite an almost overwhelming handicap, a severe learning disability that renders him virtually unable to read text.

"I would love to go to an Italian university, but I know that I could not survive there," Michi said. He was told by an academic counsellor in New York to go to Concordia University, in Montreal, because of the respect and extra help given disabled students. He came to Montreal and got his DEC in anthropology at Vanier College before entering the Classics program here.

Now 26, he is married, with a child. His wife, Heike Fliegel, a gifted philologist who won the Birks Medal at Concordia in 1996, helps him with his studies by reading text aloud to him.

Professor Andrew Sherwood, himself an archeologist, has high praise for Michi. "He is well equipped for this project because he has done some [archeological] work by himself in Italy, and has connections there."

The chair of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics, Annette Teffeteller, agrees. "He has such passion, such determination and initiative. It's an exciting initiative."

While Classics doesn't offer an MA program, Michi is hoping that after he graduates, probably in the spring of 1999, he can keep working with Eurisko by doing his Master's in the Special Individualized Program.