Brooke Ellison - From Quadriplegic to Harvard Magna, & Author, Jean Ellison

On September 4, 1990, at the age of 11, Brooke was hit by a car while walking home on her first day of junior high school, resulting in her being paralyzed from the neck down. Although her injuries left her completely dependent on other people, she graduated from Ward Melville High School in 1996 with high honors, and was accepted by Harvard. She graduated summa cum laude from Harvard with a bachelor of science in cognitive neuroscience in 2000, and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.[3] In 2014 Rutgers University awarded Brooke Ellison with an honorary doctorate in humane letters