Mikel Bistany "Smiling Wildly" Scholarship

Mikel Bistany was a student at Orange Coast College. He was a teaching assistant in the Anatomy & Physiology Department, coordinated the Honors Prosection Team, and volunteered in Adapted Physical Education. He organized national tournaments in wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball. He was devoted to helping those with spinal cord injuries, and anyone else who needed assistance.

Mikel received two Robert B. Moore pins and the prestigious Joseph Kroll Award for Service and Leadership. He achieved his Masters Degree in Adapted P.E. and taught at OCC, Irvine Valley College, and others. All this in spite of disabling asthma and serious dyslexia.

When he died of chronic asthma at 51 he had just completed a fund raiser for The Spinal Cord Injury Foundation, where he served as a board member. This scholarship is to honor Mikel’s commitment to the disabled, and to inspire a disabled student to strive for excellence as he always did, “smiling wildly.”