How Illinois helped John Preston redefine himself

Arriving at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the 1970s, John Preston was among the few Black students and people with disabilities on campus. His journey through the university not only challenged him to navigate an unfamiliar world but also taught him the value of embracing life as it comes.

“If you understood what you’re going through, being Black, then what you go through being disabled is just a continuation of having that experience of being different,” Preston said. 

In high school, a car accident left Preston paralyzed. The sudden change forced him to navigate a world that wasn’t built for people like him.

Having also grown up in the South, he said he had never been in an integrated environment until he came to U. of I. in 1967 to complete an undergraduate degree in business administration and marketing. It was the only university in the nation at that time that was accessible and accommodating to persons with disabilities.

“When I arrived, I went into my room and I met my roommate. Dwight was from Wisconsin and he was white,” Preston said. “This would be the first time I ever had lived with someone of a different race.”

Preston faced some discrimination in his dorm during the early weeks, but “I was used to it and I soon felt that discrimination melt away when we all got to know each other personally.” For him, the accessibility of the campus and sense of freedom was amazing.

“It was a campus that I could push all over,” Preston said. “I could go from one end to the other, and I could go anywhere in any building. I could get out of my chair and transfer into an accessible shower chair. It was absolutely fantastic.”

He had never lived in a place with accommodations like U. of I. Preston recalled that when he first applied to Illinois, he was missing course requirements like chemistry and algebra. Those classes in his high school were taught upstairs—a place inaccessible to him. 

His wife, Lynn Preston, said the integration of people with disabilities isn’t just an opportunity for students with disabilities to have an accessible college program.

“U. of I. offered an opportunity for people who are able-bodied to have a realistic normalized opportunity to integrate with a population that happened to be disabled,” Lynn Preston said. “When we integrate with each other and know each other personally, we don’t see the disability or wheelchair first—we learn to see the person.”

At Illinois, Preston said it was a real treat to be in an environment where he felt comfortable, physically and mentally, as well as educationally.

“I was able to get in touch with a self that I had never been before,” Preston said. “I was able to start thinking about myself as someone who had an opportunity to become different in a world that I hadn’t traversed.”

That physical freedom opened the door to emotional freedom, too—a shift Preston didn’t fully understand until a study abroad trip to France offered and supported by Illinois as part of his master’s program in psychological social work.

“As far as I can see, people were standing up staring at us—but I didn’t feel bad,” Preson said. “I was trying to figure out, ‘Why don’t I feel bad?’ And I realized that I cannot look inside their heads to see what they were thinking. Whatever negative impressions I was getting was from me—it wasn’t coming from people on the outside.”

It was at that moment, Preston said, that he began to feel OK about himself.

“That was the greatest sense of accomplishment because I came away knowing that my life was about learning how to be OK with me, not about trying to determine whether someone liked me or didn’t like me. It was more about me getting to like me.”

Another experience that defined Preston’s college career was his job as a bouncer at a bar. 

“I determined who could come through the door, I was checking IDs at the door,” Preston said. “That was one of the things that really was the normalization process for me. I felt like everybody else because I was doing the same things everyone was doing. I’ll always appreciate the gentleman who gave me the job.”

Shortly after graduating with his B.S., Preston went back to earn his masters in social work. Once it was completed, he packed his car and drove to California, where he landed a job as a licensed psychotherapist for Stanford. His job was to provide sessions to staff and faculty who were having difficulties with their families, the university or any other issues.

“People just feel different sometimes in their environment. We try to get in touch with whom we are within a group of individuals,” Preston said.

He said being in social service helped him understand a lot about individuals and the therapeutic process, and that is intimately tied to my education and experiences at U. of I.

“My success as a psychotherapist was also a result of my coming to terms with myself and the quality of the education that I was getting,” Preston said. “It helped me become a better therapist and gave me the tremendous ability to change my awareness of life to see how I could grow and become the best that I could be.”

Preston said he’s gone on to have a fantastic life, with kids, grandchildren and a great-grandchild with another on the way.

“My life has been more than I could ever have thought it could be,” Preston said.

His philosophy that he has carried throughout his life can resonate with all audiences.

“The first thing one has to do is accept, ‘This is who I am,’” Preston said. “Then, you look at each situation that comes into your life as, ‘How can I be the best me in this situation?’ And you are always looking at life as an ability to grow and become who you are and feel OK about you.”

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