About 40 years ago, Alex Kaganzev’s life was about to change.
He was a life-long stutter who had turned away from treatment after what he felt were embarrassing efforts to help him. That’s when Seeta Voorakkara stepped into his life.
“Seeta was very caring, very sweet,” Kaganzev told NJ Advance Media this week. “I never forgot her kindness. I wanted to do something for her. Stuttering impacts a person’s life. Everything done in life is predicated on how one speaks.”
When they met, Voorakkara and Kanganzev worked at the Vineland Developmental Center, a live-in facility for the developmentally disabled. Kanganzev said a family friend who also worked there asked Voorakkara, a speech therapist, to help him.
Now, more than three decades later, Kanganzev has started a scholarship program at Stockton University for students pursuing careers that involve speech pathology.
“People out there that need help and don’t know where to go or start,” Kanganzev said. “It’s important to find the right person. I found the right person. God put her in my life at the right time. There’s a huge need for speech pathologists.”
Kanganzev established the Seeta Voorakkara Communications Disorders Memorial Scholarship with the Stockton University Foundation, which provided a $1,000 scholarship to one Stockton student each year. He increased the endowment this month to provide two $1,000 scholarships yearly to two students.
Vorrakkara’s son is also helping fund the scholarships in honor of his mother, who died in 2011.
“Sometimes we forget how one act, or one individual, can set into motion a series of events that can change multiple lives,” Stockton President Joe Bertolino said in a statement from the school.
Kanganzev, now 65 and retired, said Voorakkara taught him speak slowly and deliberately, and he never forgot it.
Please subscribe now and support the local journalism you rely on and trust.
Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com.
