Matt McFadden '13

Determined Student Scholarship Recipient Pursues Degree Despite Brain Injury

 
High school senior Matt McFadden was looking forward to his freshman year at the University of Rhode Island. His education was all figured out: He would live on campus, master his general education classes and, then, excel in coursework that would lead toward acceptance to medical school. Several of his family members are in the health professions, including his mother who is a registered nurse and his uncle, an eye doctor. So McFadden’s family supported his dream of becoming a physician and shared in his excitement about entering URI in the fall of 2004.

Fitness was important to McFadden, and he regularly worked out at Gold’s Gym in Warwick. April 14, 2004, was like any other day, except that he had a mild headache, one that had been bothering him for a couple of days. It didn’t alter McFadden’s exercise routine, though. But when he started his bench presses, something went terribly wrong: Seventeen-year-old McFadden suffered a stroke.
He awoke from a coma in a hospital bed. He didn’t know who anyone was. He couldn’t remember anything. He couldn’t speak.

“I never saw it coming,” McFadden recalls. “Nobody did. We didn’t know that I’d been born with a defect in my brain. The arteries and veins were tangled. It’s called an arteriovenous malformation.”
McFadden’s brain injury left him without peripheral vision and with memory impairment. Yet, despite this, today 24-year-old McFadden enjoys his status as a junior in the Bachelor of General Studies program at URI’s Feinstein Providence campus. Taking courses part time since fall 2007, he will graduate with a degree in health services administration. He hopes to do so within the next couple of years.

“There is a long list of people who have been assisting me on the Feinstein campus,” McFadden says. “From my academic advisor to the staff at the Academic Skills Lab, everybody has been fantastic. And since the health services administration degree is so broad, I can use it in a plethora of situations. I could definitely counsel people who have had similar injuries.” That would require more education—later on. Right now, McFadden says he just wants to focus on graduating.

Of the many supports at URI for which McFadden is grateful, one of the most important to him is his scholarship, provided by Alan and Lillian Feinstein through the URI Foundation. The fund provides aid to undergraduate College of Continuing Education students as well as financial assistance for day care for their children. Scores of students receive financial support through this endowment each year.

“Before my injury, I didn’t even know about the Feinstein campus in Providence or the Feinstein Scholarship,” McFadden says. “Without the scholarship, I couldn’t have afforded to go to school. The Feinstein Scholarship has made a huge difference.”