{"id":5586,"date":"2018-04-04T16:56:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T20:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kumon.com\/resources\/?p=5586"},"modified":"2023-08-18T16:28:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T20:28:28","slug":"defying-all-the-odds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kumon.com\/resources\/defying-all-the-odds\/","title":{"rendered":"Defying All Odds: This Kumon Student is Headed to the Special Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our founder, Toru Kumon, once said \u201cGive it a try! Or you will never discover your true potential.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 9px;\"><\/div>\n<p>Meet\u00a0Rhea. She\u00a0stepped outside of her comfort zone, gave it a try and fell in love with the sport of gymnastics. Today, she\u2019s the New Jersey State Champion for Gymnastics, Level 3,\u00a0and will be representing\u00a0her state\u00a0at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.specialolympicsusagames.org\/\" aria-label=\"2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle, Washington\">2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle, Washington<\/a>\u00a0this July.\u00a0As an all-around gymnast, Rhea will compete on the beam, the bars apparatus, vault and floor exercise.<\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 9px;\"><\/div>\n<p>After Rhea was diagnosed with a learning disability at\u00a0five\u00a0years old, her\u00a0parents\u00a0decided to enroll her in Kumon because they felt the structured approach would really help her both academically and socially.<\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 9px;\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI was amazed by how quickly we saw improvements\u2014they were apparent within a month and have been consistent\u00a0ever\u00a0since,\u201d said\u00a0Rhea\u2019s mother\u00a0Rekha. \u201cNot only was\u00a0she\u00a0able to start following lessons in class\u00a0without\u00a0becoming frustrated, but she also developed improved social skills.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 9px;\"><\/div>\n<p>Rhea\u2019s Kumon Instructor, Rinku Kapur, refers to her as their \u201cshining star\u201d and boy does she live up to that name.<\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 9px;\"><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5588 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kumon.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Rhea-Olympics-portrait-254x300.jpg\" alt=\"Rhea Special Olympics Portrait\" width=\"254\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kumon.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Rhea-Olympics-portrait-254x300.jpg 254w, https:\/\/www.kumon.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Rhea-Olympics-portrait-768x906.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.kumon.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Rhea-Olympics-portrait.jpg 1492w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 254px) 100vw, 254px\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 9px;\"><\/div>\n<p>She\u2019s fully grasped the self-learning approach and has incorporated structure into every aspect of her daily life, which is imperative with the schedule that she maintains. Between the intense training for the upcoming Special Olympics, school work, Kumon studies and her other extracurricular activities, time management has been\u00a0key\u00a0for Rhea.<\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 9px;\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe are so appreciative of the entire Kumon family, but especially for Rinku,\u201d said\u00a0Rekha. \u201cShe took it upon herself to make sure our daughter was successful and we are so grateful for that. Because of her, Rhea has overcome her academic hurdles, learned to be organized and structured and developed a sense of accountability and responsibility that she\u2019ll use for the rest of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 9px;\"><\/div>\n<p>The motto of the Special Olympics\u2014\u201cLet me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt\u201d\u2014is about finding the courage to give it your all. If you saw Rhea perform, you\u2019d see that she\u00a0exudes confidence in gymnastics. We look forward to following her continued success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our founder, Toru Kumon, once said \u201cGive it a try! Or you will never discover your true potential.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meet\u00a0Rhea. She\u00a0stepped outside of her comfort zone, gave it a try and fell in love with the sport of gymnastics. Today, she\u2019s the New Jersey State Champion for Gymnastics, Level 3,\u00a0and will be representing\u00a0her state\u00a0at the\u00a02018 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Defying All Odds: This Kumon Student is Headed to the Special Olympics<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rhea saw big improvements academically and socially after enrolling in the Kumon Program. 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