A truly amazing and inspirational story ran this week in the Catonsville (MD) Times about Kavita Krishnaswamy, who recently graduated from the University of Maryland, where she majored in computer science and mathematics. What’s amazing about the story is that she had a perfect 4.0 grade point average. In other words, she didn’t receive a grade lower than “A” during her entire college career. What’s TRULY amazing about the story is that due to having spinal muscular atrophy, she’s unable to move any muscles except the ones in her face, and one finger.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Columbia [MD] resident was born with spinal muscular atrophy, type II, a form of muscular dystrophy.

She can only move the index finger on her right hand.

She has feeling in her entire body, but she can’t control any other muscles other than those in her face.

But when her mother, Pushpa Krishnaswamy, or a friend places her hand on her red track ball, she’s transformed.

“That got me through college and high school and that’s the reason for my 4.0,” said Krishnaswamy, who graduated in 2001 from Wild Lake High School, in Columbia, and from UMBC five years later.

She said her computer’s virtual keyboard allows her to roll the pointer over a letter and click the mouse to type.

The time-consuming process meant Krishnaswamy, a Meyerhoff scholarship recipient, worked many nights late into the morning.

Pushpa Krishnaswamy said her daughter often didn’t go to bed until 4 or 5 a.m. after spending the night and early morning typing her school work.

You can read the entire story on the Catonsville Times website.