MDA: UTEP Student Knows No Limits

Don't let the wheel chair fool you, Emmanuel Arzate is a man on the go.

"I just think if you don't get involved, you're just an ordinary student and I wouldn't like that," he says.

This 19-year old is anything but ordinary. In fact, he has a schedule that many students could not handle. He juggles classes as a pre-business sophomore at UTEP with work in several other organizations, including the Student Government Association, Minor Diamonds, and the Lambda Chi Alpha social fraternity. He also spent some of his free time before the new school year working as an orientation leader.

"I just don't stop. I just have to keep going. I've always thought there aren't limits. In reality, one sets their own limits and I just don't know mine yet," Emmanuel tells us.

It seems that has always been the case. At 2-years old, Emmanuel was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. By the time he hit middle school, he lost a lot of the ability to move his muscles.

"I was no longer able to throw a basketball or a football. also my eighth grade going into my freshman year, i lost the ability to feed myself, he explains.

That still was not enough to stop him.

"I just see it as an obstacle, but any obstacle can be overcome and i just wish anyone with a disability could see that," Emmanuel says.

His senior year at Jefferson High School, Emmanuel was class president, homecoming king, a member of the National Honor Society and he graduated in the top ten percent of his class. It has been all up hill since then.

He says,"that's one thing I love about college life, it's really different from high school. There's always someone willing to help you. Sometimes you don't even have to ask and people just offer to help. That's pretty amazing."

So is the help he gets from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In addition to a lot of support and help with his wheelchair, the MDA also provides Emmanuel with clinic visits that are vital to keeping him healthy. But, none of this would be possible without your help.

"They don't get funded any other way. It's really beneficial for people to donate," he says.

Beneficial for El Pasoans like Emmanuel, so they can perhaps one day live to see a cure.