Paul Davis: Never met a student the likes of Jake Giambrone

Jake Giambrone is a remarkable, much loved young man. I have known him since he was a toddler. He lived near my grandson, Blanton, and they were buddies in the early years. Jake lives in a different world today, unable to do some very simple tasks, yet able in other ways to conquer the work with his beautiful mind.

One week he is in China, another spent in the waters off Jamaica and most recently he was on his spring fling in the beautiful blue waters of Puerto Rico. He is a scholar at Auburn University, about ready to leave with a near perfect academic record to enter law school.

He wants to be a pro bono lawyer, to use his knowledge to help others who haven’t received their fair share of life. He knows all about such people. He lives alone, but his mother, Susan, stops by every day to see that he’s getting things in gear and most mornings she’ll take him some greasy food from Waffle House. You have to keep your grease level up.

Jake moved last week from his condo back into the large house his mother built for him. It has large rooms and many special features to accommodate a young man with special physical needs. She vacated the premises and moved to the lake. Jake likes his space.

Jake is paralyzed from the neck down. He has a little use of his hands, just enough to steer his electric wheelchair. He doesn’t want pity; he just wants folks to stay out of his way as he continues toward the fulfillment of his dream.

His father, Dr. Joe Giambrone is a professor at Auburn University and puts about as many words in local papers as I do. He holds firm to the belief that stem cell research can lead to repairs of damaged spinal cords and allow people like his son to walk again.

Jake was a student at Auburn High when a tragic accident in wrestling training left him paralyzed, confined to a wheelchair and unable to use his hands and arms. His C-4 and C-5 vertebrae had been shattered. He’s lived with his disability for eight years with style, grace and dignity.

Jake’s parents are divorced, but work in their own ways to aid their son. Are you ready for this?

Jake has now become one of two Auburn finalists for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship Program. The other finalist is Ms. Lauren Elizabeth Roddy.
In nominating Giambrone, Dr. Paul Harris, associate director of the National Prestigious Scholarships on Auburn’s Honors College, had this to say:

“He (Jake) is a top-rate student, a kind, caring young man, an eternal optimist, and someone who demonstrates day-in and day-out a will to succeed and in turn, make the world a better place. I can think of no one more deserving than Jake for the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

“He has performed to the highest standards in all his coursework, and he goes beyond what is normally expected of undergraduates demonstrating a strong desire to learn, explore, and engage his professors and classmates. A young man with enormous scholarly and professional potential, Jake Giambrone is an embodiment of the Jack Kent Cooke ideal--“ a man with true character.

“Jake Giambrone is one of the hardest working students I know, always doing the right thing and never cutting corners. In over 15 years teaching at the college level, I have never met a student the likes of Jake Giambrone. A young man who is forced to live his life without the use of his limbs, Jake has turned his disability into a strength developing his beautiful mind to carry him places few of us can imagine. I enthusiastically and without reservations support Joseph P. “Jake” Giambrone for a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship.”

Paul Davis writes a Sunday column for the Opelika-Auburn News. You may contact him at Paul—Davis@charter.net