Common thoughts junior year are focusing on the ACT, finding colleges to visit, prom and adapting to high school as an upperclassman.

However, James Bosco had a few extra things to adapt to his junior year due to losing his vision.

Bosco was up to the challenge, though, and persevered his last two years at Notre Dame with the help of Ms.Anne Eisley, a paraprofessional at Notre Dame Academy.

“James is a very persistent and focused student who strives to reach his potential. He has very good communication skills, and I think that could have set him apart in the application process,” said Eisley in talking about his college application process.

In the fall Bosco will be attending Perkins School for the Blind as well as taking some courses at Harvard University.

According to USnews.com, Harvard is America’s #2 school with an acceptance rate of 4.5%. In other words, Bosco will be studying with some of the brightest minds in the world.

“I’m excited to get closer to the family I have there that I haven’t seen for a while. I spent a lot of time in Boston as a kid because we lived close. We used to walk around all the different spots and hang out. The food is fantastic and the sights are beautiful,” Bosco stated.

Bosco has worked hard for the past twp years and continues to work hard to learn a new way of life.

“Some skills I’ve had to learn and am still learning are cane travel and now I’m learning Braille. I have a teacher that comes to school for that.”

Not only has he had to learn new skills since his accident, but he’s also had to change the way he looks at life too.

“My freshman, and sophomore year especially, I felt like the world was at my fingertips and that I could do anything. Between my sophomore and junior year, it was tough. During the summer, I was away and I did schooling for my vision. It was very difficult for me to reorient myself to what I had to do and what my life had to look like and that was so hard for me to come to grips with. Now that I’ve come to grips with it and adapted to my situation, I’m a new me. Not better or worse in any way, but definitely different,” said Bosco.

Bosco wanted to give special thanks to certain people for their support on his journey.

“I want to thank Mrs. Brown for all of her support throughout all of my four years. Another big one is my mom because she’s always been there for me. My dad too, he’s always been there. And they still are and they are my biggest supporters.”