Hannah Smith: From playing Wilbur in fifth grade to seeking a master's degree

And she’s not done yet.

She and her mother say she is showing herself and the world she is not defined by her condition but is pursuing her dreams and career aspirations in spite of it.

Smith graduated May 7 from East Tennessee State University with a bachelor’s of arts in theater on a pre-speech and language pathology track. In the fall, she will continue on her educational journey, seeking a master’s of science in speech language pathology.

“I would like to use that as a speech pathologist in a nursing home or hospital,” Smith said. “I really do like the medical field.”

However, her aspirations don’t stop there because she said such a career would give her time to continue her interest in the arts, including local theater, drawing, painting, cartooning and writing.

“Eventually I would like to be a writer, an author.”

Her writing passions are fiction and poetry, although she’s written for the East Tennessean student newspaper at ETSU.

“I also worked a job on the weekends.” That is at the Olive Garden in Johnson City.

Smith has achondroplasia, the most common form of skeletal dysplasia or dwarfism. The condition also created some issues with her ears, since her ear canal is smaller than that of most adults, and problems with her joints.

About one person in 40,000 is born with the condition, which for her was a genetic mutation, as it is in most cases, rather than hereditary.

“As I got older at the end of college, I found out people looked up to me,” Smith said. “This (ETSU) is a place where those who are different are celebrated and appreciated.”

In elementary, middle and high school in Kingsport, Smith said she was in theater and gave a speech at graduation from Dobyns-Bennett High School but otherwise didn’t necessarily excel, although she was involved in the Kingsport Theatre Guild, including the spring 2011 production of “Charlotte’s Web” that a Kingsport Times News feature highlighted.

In college, she expanded her horizons beyond theater.

“I like to show other people you can still be physically disabled and make your goals,” said Smith, who lives in an apartment a few blocks from campus with her roommate and her cat “just like an able-bodied person.”

She’s working this summer to make money for her master’s degree, as well as putting together a book of poems she hopes to get published. She’s had some poetry published by ETSU.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Among her accomplishments at ETSU, Smith:

• Was chosen one of 11 for ETSU’s 1911 Society, Class of 2022. The 1911 Society was named for the year ETSU was founded and recognizes the university’s most notable graduates from undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. The selection committee evaluates applicants on things such as academic achievement, sustained service, honors, awards, recognitions, publications, presentations and demonstrated leadership. 

• Received the ETSU Friends of Theatre Scholarship and ETSU Diversity in Theatre Scholarship. Her mother credited those, gained with help from her theater activities at D-B, for allowing her to attend ETSU.

• Became a member of ETSU’s Department of Theatre and Dance, portraying various roles over the past four years.

• Was nominated for the Kennedy Center Irene Ryan Award in Acting.

• Became a member of ETSU’s Creative Writing Society.

• Had three poems published in the 49th Volume (2022 edition) of ETSU’s student literary arts journal, The Mockingbird.

• Won the Writer of the Year Award for the East Tennessean, the university’s student-operated newspaper, for which she started writing her junior year.

“I’ve written from the time I could hold a pencil,” said Smith, who wrote an article about ETSU President Brian Noland’s 10-year anniversary at ETSU.

• Joined Delta Alpha Pi disability honor society.

• Made the Dean’s List.

• Became a TED X ETSU presenter. The title of Hannah’s talk was “How to Become A Piece of the Puzzle: Why Diversity and Inclusion of Differently-Abled Individuals in the Media is Important.”

• Became a member of ETSU’s Preview & Orientation Leader Organization (POLO) , where she served a term as president.

• Received the Dr. Sally S. Lee Leader of the Year Award (highest honor for POLO).

• Became a member of the Spring 2021 Homecoming Court.

• Assisted in teaching the ETSU 1020: Foundations of Student Success class.

• Was selected for the ETSU Academic Taskforce to discuss and propose plans for the future of academics at the school.

FAMILY SUPPORT

Smith’s father is Anthony, and her brother, Mathew, will be a senior at D-B EXCEL come August and is on the underwater robotics team that will head to California next month for competition.

And one of her biggest supporters is her mother, Elizabeth Smith, known as Beth. The mother said she told her daughter growing up that newspaper and other media coverage about differently abled individuals raised awareness of all and helped those with such challenges understand they could succeed.

“I consider myself to be her biggest fan,” Beth Smith said.