Diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2 at just 1 year old, she defied the odds against her.

“The doctor told my parents that I would be lucky if I made it past the age of 2,” Runyon said.

Throughout her journey, Runyon encountered assumptions from individuals including doctors and teachers who couldn’t see beyond perceived limitations. These discrimination challenges fueled advocacy efforts for herself and others with disabilities.

In high school, she served as a state Ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, advocating for bills benefiting the neuromuscular community.

Runyon never envisioned herself advocating at a large scale because of her shyness. Reflecting, Runyon said, “It just kind of happened naturally because I have been advocating for myself for so long.”

After deciding to come to UofL for its affordability, Runyon continued to find ways to help her community. 

In October 2023, Runyon was a part of founding (DCU.) DCU is a coalition of disabled students and their allies which works to foster a safe and inclusive environment for disabled students, to promote student led advocacy, and to provide a space for disabled students to build solidarity.

“It’s centered on intersectionality around disability and it’s one of the places I’ve felt is most inclusive and at home just because of the acceptance I’ve had,” Runyon said.

Recognized as the student of the year, Runyon plans to continue her advocacy after graduation. She aspires to be a counselor, driven by a passion to address the lack of understanding in the mental health field, particularly for people of color and those with disabilities.

Transitioning her sophomore year from a music therapy major to psychology, Runyon’s natural inclination towards listening and understanding people guides her path. She now sees her shyness as a strength. 

“It comes naturally to me,” Runyon said. “It’s because I am shy I do so well. I listen more. And I think about what questions to ask. I’m interested in learning more about people and picking their brain.”

As she prepares to participate in on May 11, Runyon acknowledges her family as her greatest support.

“My family is my backbone, and I would not be where I am today without them,” Runyon said.

After working for a decade with youth and their families as a site supervisor for school-based services at the local non-profit , Cortes, 33, joined the Kent School staff in October 2023 as the Bachelor of Science in Social Work (BSW) Program Admissions and Recruitment Coordinator.

First-Gen student success
A first-generation student, Cortes grew up in Oldham County in a family that valued education.

“My mom was one of only two of the six kids in her family who completed high school, and my dad was an immigrant from Mexico who completed the ninth grade,” said Cortes. “My parents were both laborers, and they were breaking their backs and coming home late at night, and they just didn’t want that same burden for their kids; they didn’t want that life for us.”

Each year, over a third of UofL’s first-year students are first-generation. To support this growing population, UofL joined the , which helps universities share data, model innovations and scale impact to advance student outcomes. Since 2019, these efforts have contributed to a 3% increase in first-to-second-year retention for first-gen students.

Finding a supportive environment at UofL
Cortes attended other colleges briefly before transferring to Louisville, where he found a niche he didn’t expect for a “guy who grew up in Oldham County on a horse farm. The only time I came to Louisville as a kid was to go to Kentucky Kingdom or the rodeo,” he said. “So, for me to go to this city and feel as comfortable as I did is a testament to everything, all the work they did to help me, not only at Kent school but at UofL, in general.”

Cortes said the University of Louisville felt personal and was responsive to his needs, including helping him balance academics with working night shifts at UPS and fulfilling his practicum hours.

“My advisors, the staff and the professors that I worked with looked out for me as an individual,” he said. “They supported me through my journey as a nontraditional student, and were able to meet me where I was…that made me feel like more than a number or just the next student coming through. They get to know me as a whole person.”

The path to success wasn’t always a smooth one for Cortes, and there were times when things were tough, and he felt too exhausted to go on. He relied on his family for moral and emotional support, and on his UofL family, as well. 

“I remember thinking there’s no way I can squeeze in the time to write this 10-page paper and then study for this exam and read those four chapters,” he said. “There was no downtime, and I felt like I was on autopilot for the better part of those years.”

But the memories of those times ultimately made the achievement sweeter.

“It makes me feel incredibly accomplished in a way that I really can’t describe. I knew that I wanted it, but I also knew I was really going to have to work for it,” he said.

New role creates new opportunities to serve
After receiving his BSW degree, Cortes worked as a youth social worker in the Louisville community. Now, in his new career as an admissions and recruitment coordinator at UofL, he’s come full-circle and is preparing the next generation of social workers to make a difference.

“I’m now in this position, advocating for my students and providing resources, counseling, sometimes crisis management,” he said. “They all have unique circumstances and backgrounds, and even though every situation is different, I feel I was once in their shoes. I really want to pay that forward for more UofL students,” said Cortes.

Cortes says he also hopes to help grow the Kent School, encouraging others to pursue a social work degree, noting the importance of addressing mental health.

“As professionals, we need to grow and advocate for mental health and talk about it as plainly as you would a physical injury,” said Cortes. “Nobody has any problem going to the doctor with a sprained wrist, but you might be hesitant to say you’re really feeling uneasy and need to go talk to somebody about it.”

Bobby Cortes treasures the messages from former families and students about things he has taught them and the impact it’s had on their lives. “For example, they’ve told me something we did together framed their thinking in a different way,” said Cortes. “I really, really love those kinds of a-ha moments.”

He’s looking forward to more of those a-ha moments in his new role with aspiring social workers.  

March is National Social Work month. to find out more about Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work and Family Science.

The event, held in conjunction with others like it worldwide, protests sexual violence. It included a resource fair, candlelight vigil and speakers Shannon VanLandingham of , UofL graduate Rachel Williams and Karina Barillas of .

According to Program Manager Tisha Pletcher, the event was especially profound this year, as it comes at a time of unprecedented growth in requests for services from the center.

In the last three years, the number of people seeking assistance for the effects of sexual assault and rape, domestic violence and stalking has more than tripled, growing from 28 students in the 2014/15 academic year to 102 students last year. Pletcher said 92 students sought PEACC services last semester alone.

“It’s been unprecedented, these last few years,” she said. “I think it’s due to everything we’ve seen happening locally, nationally and globally. People are speaking out in a very public way now.”

Events like the #MeToo movement, the Women’s March and high-profile sexual assault cases like that of Bill Cosby, have sparked a greater awareness and helped lift the veil of stigma and shame.

“People are seeing others who’ve experienced something similar to them, who have carried on and become successful. They see they’re not alone in this,” Pletcher said. 

PEACC was particularly busy during the weeks surrounding the high profile hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford.  

“Our numbers doubled those weeks,” Pletcher said. “We heard from numerous students who came in and said ‘I’m just so triggered by this and I need some support.’”

PEACC, which is a part of , offers a gamut of services including prevention education, community advocacy and initial crisis counseling.

Pletcher says for those seeking counseling, staff will listen and gently ask questions to discern what victims need, and help connect them with those resources, whether it’s the police or obtaining a protective order.

They also facilitate survivor network, a private group for those who have had experienced sexual violence, dating violence or/and stalking, that meets twice a month. There are 115 members.

“We let the group make it whatever the members need it to be,” she said. “We just provide the infrastructure to allow it to happen.” 

“Scientists should be involved, stay informed and advocate for science funding,” said Naomi Charalambakis, a graduate student in the University of Louisville Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. “A lot of students and postdocs are completely unaware of how the budget begins and where scientists can intervene to help that process along. We have direct input and we can change the attitudes of policymakers.”

To help students and faculty at UofL gain a better understanding of the budget process and how individual researchers can affect it, the Science and Policy Outreach Group (SPOG) will present, “Funding Your Future: A forum discussing the federal budget and the importance of science advocacy,” at 10 a.m. August 26 at HSC Auditorium.

The event’s keynote speaker, Congressman John Yarmuth, will help clarify the federal budget process and provide an update on federal funding for the 2017 fiscal year, which begins October 1. Yarmuth, who represents Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, serves on the Committee on Budget and the Committee on Energy.

The forum schedule includes:

• 10 a.m. – Naomi Charalambakis, graduate student and Society for Neuroscience fellow, “The Federal Budget – How it works and why students should care.”
• 10:45 a.m. – William Guido, PhD, chair of the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, “The Importance of Advocacy – a chairman’s perspective.”
• 11 a.m. – Jon Klein, MD, PhD, vice dean for research of the UofL School of Medicine, will introduce Congressman John Yarmuth. A Q&A session will follow.

The event is hosted by the Science and Policy Outreach Group (SPOG) and the Career

Research Advancement Focused Training (CRAFT) Seminar Series. SPOG is an organization of graduate students at UofL with the mission to create and facilitate a dialogue between students in the sciences and members of Congress and the community. The CRAFT Seminar Series offers monthly presentations on career development for postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at UofL.