When Joann Blumenfeld, an educator with the Wake County Public School System, looks at her students, she doesn’t see disabilities — she sees superpowers.
“We need to flip the mindset that these kids have disabilities,” says Blumenfeld, a special education teacher and founder of Catalyst, a STEM program for high school students with disabilities. “They have different superpowers.”
Blumenfeld was recognized as a TIME Innovative Teacher of the Year, presented by Verizon, for her work getting students with disabilities into high-paying STEM careers. Through Catalyst, which she started in 2014,…