Kathleen Rives hates the word “victim.” As a person with a disability, the SF State graduate student knows how it feels to bare the stamp of a deceiving label.

Although her disability affects one of the most obvious locations on her body - her face - it has not slowed down Rives, 25, from collecting an impressive amount of both scholastic and personal accomplishments.

“You never ‘overcome’ a disability,” Rives said. “It is with you and that’s okay.”
She said that disabilities are medical conditions that become socially constructed concepts, which often imply something horrible.

“Either it is [negative] or it isn’t, that’s up to the individual to decide,” she said.

Rives’ disability is considerably individualized. She was born with Moebius Syndrome, a rare form of neurological disorder that causes facial paralysis. Depending on the level of severity, some people with Moebius live life without the ability to smile or blink. The syndrome can also cause crossed eyes.

“Since I have a limited capacity to form facial expression, in order to communicate, I must observed others and modify their nonverbal behavior to fit my abilities,” she wrote about her experience with having Moebius Syndrome in an application letter to the William Randolph Hearst/CSU Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement. Rives was recently selected as one of 23 California State University students to receive the $3,000 scholarship.

Director of CSU Programs and Services Anne Gillespie Brown, who handles the Hearst and other system wide scholarship programs, said that Rives “is extraordinarily articulate and definitely an inspiration.”

In her letter, Rives also discussed her former job as a social worker in her hometown of Baton Rouge, La. before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina hit in August of 2005. During this time, she served residents who were disabled and living below the poverty line.

“Some of my clients were so impoverished that they had to alternate between paying to have their water and their electricity turned on,” she said. “This happened more often after the rise of gas prices after Katrina.” Rives said that her neighborhood was relatively unaffected by the disaster, except for a weeklong power outage.

One year later, Rives moved to San Francisco after graduating Louisiana State University to study psychology with Dr. David Matsumoto at SF State’s Cultural and Emotion Research Laboratory.

Matsumoto said that Rives “is an exceptional student -- bright, intelligent, hard working, loyal, responsible [and] diligent.” She is now a project manager for one of the studies performed in CERL, studying nonverbal behavior associated with anger.

“Having this facial paralysis made me interested in nonverbal communication,” Rives said, adding that her own verbal and nonverbal communication skills have had to change because of her medical condition.

“When you realize that you are unable to show emotions on your face, I have to recognize what I’m feeling and find other channels to communicate it,” said Rives, who used her hands expressively between periodically warming them in her grey coat’s pockets.

She is currently applying to PhD. programs and will “hopefully” graduate in May of 2008. Her future plans include counseling and further research on the psychological effects of facial paralysis.

“By providing information on the psychology and social construction of disability, I hope to improve the self-determination of people with disabilities,” she said.