COLUMBIA, Olivia Ferrara, a student at Columbia State Community College, has earned national recognition for her short fiction, taking first place in the Short Fiction category of the Sigma Kappa Delta Honor Society's national journal, Hedera helix. The journal draws submissions from community college students across the country, featuring short stories, poetry, photography, and essays. Ferrara's win also came with a $500 award for her piece, titled "Ears to Hear, and Eyes to See."
The story centers on a caregiver named Emily and a four-year-old girl named Elizabeth, who has cerebral palsy and is nonspeaking. Written in first person from Emily's perspective, the story describes the quiet, patient work of genuine human connection across the barrier of words. While others around Elizabeth focus on what she cannot do, Emily seeks only to understand her. Ferrara drew the story directly from her own life. She works as a nanny for a nonspeaking child with cerebral palsy, and she has said that her young charge is the reason the story exists at all.
Dr. Jessica Evans, Columbia State's associate professor of English and Sigma Kappa Delta faculty sponsor, said she was overjoyed when Ferrara ran to her office with the news. Evans described Ferrara as an active and delightful addition to the chapter. Ferrara herself said she hoped readers would take away one simple message: seek a better understanding of each other. It is a sentiment that sounds plain on paper but runs quietly against the grain of a culture that too often moves too fast to listen.
Columbia State's Hampshire Pike campus has long been a place where students from across Maury County find their footing, develop their voices, and go on to contribute to this community and beyond. Ferrara's achievement is a reminder of the genuine talent that walks those halls every semester. Congratulations to her on a well-earned honor.