HUTCHINSON— For Miss Kansas' Outstanding Teen 2022, Niomi Ndirangu, finding her voice while suffering from epilepsy growing up was a challenge.
"I was diagnosed when I was five years old," Ndirangu said. "As I started growing up, and going to school and being out in my community and doing all the things, I felt that I didn't have the proper care that I needed. Especially in the classroom setting, I would have times where I would have a seizure in class and my teachers would say, oh, well, why are you not paying attention in class? They would notify my mother about it and she would say, did you know that she had seizures? My teachers said no, absolutely not, we had no idea. That, to me, is a huge problem. If you don't know what type of medical risks or what signs to look for when one of your students is having a seizure, that can be seriously life threatening."
Ndirangu's goal is to widen epilepsy training, so that lives can be saved.
"I've been successful with that," I've partnered with The Epilepsy Foundation of Missouri & Kansas. We have successfully trained over 1500 individuals. My goal is to keep doing that. I'm actually holding some seizure first aid events."
Thanks to the Epilepsy Foundation's national organization, there is an online training that Ndirangu is offering July 11 at the Wichita Public Advanced Learning Library and July 18 at the Andover Public Library. It takes about 45 minutes for those events. Ndirangu has been blessed to be symptom-free for some time now, but she said she will continue to advocate.
"Even if I wasn't Miss Kansas' Outstanding Teen or preparing for Miss America's Outstanding Teen, now that I've started this journey of providing training, I would still continue to it. It's truly just a passion for me. I truly believe we are changing people's lives by providing this training."
The Miss America’s Outstanding Teen competition is next month in Dallas.