Student Madelyn Hubbs was born without her left arm and has devoted her life to breaking down barriers that surround the disability community.
Student Madelyn Hubbs was born without her left arm and has devoted her life to breaking down barriers that surround the disability community.
When Madelyn Hubbs was born 19 years ago, doctors told her parents that despite being 10 weeks premature, their tiny three-pound baby was in good health. But she was born without her left arm.
Hubbs was three months old when she first visited Shriners Hospitals for Children – St. Louis, and it became a major influence on her life and that of her family. Shriners medical personnel helped Hubbs learn to function and interact in the world. She credits her family — parents, Jeffrey and Melissa, and younger brother, Kyle — for her can-do attitude and never saying she couldn’t do something.
“From my earliest memories, Shriners never felt like a hospital to me,” Hubbs said. “I was always met with hugs and smiles from everyone there. The medical staff taught me how to cut up my food, tie my shoes, button my coat. It’s where I met my first best friend, who was missing her left leg. And we are still best friends.”
Today, the dynamic Madelyn Hubbs is a second-year student at Maryville University and has learned all those skills and then some. She and her family continue to work closely with Shriners Hospitals for Children. Hubbs was recently named one of the 2019-2020 National Patient Ambassadors for Shriners. The ambassadors travel a few days a month sharing their life stories and how Shriners Hospitals has made a dramatic, life-changing difference in their lives. The ambassadors even had the opportunity to ride on the Shriners Hospitals for Children float in this year’s Rose Parade.
Currently, Hubbs is working toward changing other people’s lives. It came as no surprise to anyone who knows her that she would pursue a career in occupational therapy.
“Maryville was my top choice,” she said. “The campus is so welcoming and inclusive. I was treated like any other person the first time I visited. And I qualified for early direct admission to the post-baccalaureate Master of Occupational Therapy program. I am a psychology major now in my second year, and then I go right into the master’s program after completing my undergrad.”
Hubbs was also drawn to Maryville because she was selected for the Tomorrow’s Innovators scholarship, which is awarded by the University in partnership with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Given annually to 30 students, the scholarship is valued at $3,000 annually and is renewable for up to 10 semesters with a 3.0 GPA. High school counselors, principals, teachers or homeschool educators can nominate St. Louis area students for the award.
Since arriving at Maryville, Hubbs has taken on leadership roles in several student organizations. She serves as secretary of the Honor Society and is co-vice president of the Students of Pre-Occupational Therapy Club, which encourages occupational therapy students to build relationships, volunteer in the community and advocate for the profession.
She also works on disability awareness and inclusion by serving as secretary of ABLE (Abolish Barriers through Leadership and Empowerment). “ABLE is open to all students, disabled or not, and is designed to break down the barriers that surround the disability community,” she said. “And those barriers are not just physical but mental barriers as well. Being part of this group opens your eyes to everyone. People without disabilities become more accepting. They become allies, spokespersons for those who are disabled.”
A recent event hosted by ABLE, “Donut Use the R Word,” encouraged all students to make a pledge in exchange for a free donut. The event helped build community for students with and without disabilities, and was a meaningful way to spread an important message.
Hubbs said everyone on the Maryville campus works on inclusiveness, from University leadership to faculty to students. Additionally, through one of Maryville’s most expansive partnerships, Apple technology and educational resources fuel the University’s Digital World 1:1 iPad program, which accelerates innovation and personalized study for all students. “Technology is especially accessible,” she said. “I record lectures on my iPad and I use speech software to type my papers and homework.”
Hubbs has been working toward a career like occupational therapy for most of her life. Shriners Hospitals for Children – St. Louis fitted her with a prosthetic arm when she was a year old. Her self-confidence and desire to help others were evident early on.
“I used the prosthesis mostly for balance,” she said. “But by the time I was in middle school, I felt I didn’t need it anymore, so I stopped using it. In my mind, nothing is impossible. If I see a problem, I adapt and work around it.
“My family had been working with the Special School District where we received services from occupational therapists like how to tie my shoes, or button my coat,” she recalls. By the time she reached elementary school she realized some of her classmates didn’t know how to react to someone who was different.
“We discovered early on that my story was more impactful when I got out into the community,” Hubbs said. “I was eight years old when my Mom and I first visited other elementary schools. We read stories to the kids. They got to know me and my message then and still is: It’s okay to be different.”
By middle school, she expanded her mission reaching out to kids with disabilities via creative videos: demonstrating how to tie their shoes, jump rope, make a ponytail with one arm, put on nail polish. Her T-shirt boasted, “Two arms are so overrated.”
When she reached high school, Hubbs turned an early elementary school bullying incident into a positive outcome. Working with Shriners Hospitals for Children, she and her mother helped develop an anti-bullying toolkit for schools, students and their families. Today, she has spoken to thousands of students and adults throughout the St. Louis area to promote disability awareness.
It seems there’s nothing Madelyn Hubbs can’t do. Her brother, Kyle, plays water polo competitively at Pattonville High School. So did Madelyn. She even competed with him on a coed, competitive water polo team. She also swam for the Disabled American Sports Association and the Bridgeton Swim Club. She rides horses, plays the ukulele with her feet, knits with a loom and still visits schools in the St. Louis region each semester, advocating for and inspiring others.
Hubbs is quick to credit her family and Shriners for her success. And now Maryville University is helping her continue to build on her lifelong dream of helping other children help themselves. “My hope is to work in an elementary school or a clinic, in a place like Shriners,” she said. “Differences can be beautiful, not limiting. If I was born with two arms, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.”