By Olivia Minnier

A local student showed off her skills and won first place at a unique academic competition this summer.

Anne Ye, a rising seventh grader at Orange Middle School, won first place at the 25th Annual Braille Challenge, an “academic competition for students in grades 1-12 who are blind or visually impaired. Over the past 25 years, more than 22,000 students have participated in the Braille Challenge, strengthening their Braille skills while building confidence and community. This year, 1,300 students from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Ireland competed in regional Braille Challenge events, with the top 50 earning a place at the Finals.”

Anne is blind in her right eye and has limited vision in her left eye. Anne is the oldest of three siblings, and Anne’s mom, Erin Lin, recalls being very scared at first after discovering her daughter’s condition.

“She was my first child, so I didn’t know anything, and I just remember seeing her eyes, and they were stuck looking up,” Erin said.

Erin said Anne has had seven surgeries to help fix issues with her condition. Erin said each time, Anne faced every doctor’s appointment, every surgery, with courage.

“All of the doctors and nurses loved her, and she puts up a smile all the time,” Erin said.

Both Erin and Anne said the last and final surgery was the scariest and the most painful for Anne to go through, because Anne’s blood pressure dropped too rapidly, and the surgery had to be stopped. Erin recalls feeling extremely scared in that moment, but her strong faith and seeing how strong her daughter was through the experience helped her a lot.

“I feel like I have to be strong for her. She’s taught me a lot,” Erin said about Anne.

Anne said she started learning Braille at the age of three. Erin said that she had an incredibly fast reading speed very quickly after learning. Anne’s teacher, Mr. Hooper, who was her vision teacher in the New York City school system from kindergarten to third grade, encouraged her to compete in the Braille Challenge.

“She has very good learning skill,” Erin said.

Anne’s win was not an overnight success. She has competed in the competition for the last four years, competing for the first time in 2020, winning three categories in 2023, and not winning at all last year, before taking the first-place prize this year. Anne said winning is fun, but the best part about competing is being around a community of her peers.

“I kind of get to get to reconnect with my friends there,” she said.

Anne said she always tries to learn from every competition experience, and winning is less of a priority for her.

Anne said she has a lot of goals for the future, including being more intentional with goal setting, learning more foreign languages other than Mandarin so she can socialize more with classmates, and prepping for learning algebra as seventh grade approaches.

“Sometimes, it doesn’t matter whether I win or not; it just matters how much you can learn from your experiences,” she said.