White House Spotlights Holy Cross Alumna on Instagram

Hey Instagram! I’m Emma Cronin, and I work for the Presidential Personnel Office. I was born three months premature with cerebral palsy, and couldn’t breathe on my own when I was born. Simple tasks like walking were challenging, even with the help of weekly physical therapy sessions. I had a muscle lengthening surgery when I was twelve, and taught myself how to walk again in the six months that followed. Needless to say, my cerebral palsy taught me to never back down from a challenge. Everyone struggles with something—whether it is noticeable or not—and my cerebral palsy has taught me to be empathetic to those struggles. My disability will never define me, but I would not be the person I am today without it. Learning to walk again definitely helped prepare me for the commitment and persistence it takes to work at the White House! Working for President Obama has been the honor of a lifetime. I’m originally from the Southside of Chicago, so I grew up with President Obama as my senator. I’ve always felt a very personal connection to his presidency. After working as an intern on the 2012 campaign, I was lucky enough to be selected as a White House intern for the following summer. And now, I serve on the Climate and Domestic Team in the Presidential Personnel Office. Our office helps to bring people into the Administration because the President depends on his political appointees to move his priorities forward. We have a saying in our office: People are policy. That’s because policy implementation doesn’t happen without passionate, dedicated public servants. So, thanks for following along today as we got to tell some of their stories to celebrate #ADA26! (Image description: Emma stands on a balcony made of grey stone at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.)

A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Jul 30, 2016 at 4:11pm PDT

Emma Cronin ’15, who works as the staff assistant for the Climate and Domestic Team in the Presidential Personnel Office, was recently featured on the White House’s Instagram feed. The post has generated more than 30,000 “likes” in a span of three days.

The profile shares the difficulties Cronin faced when she was younger. She was born three months premature with cerebral palsy. “I had a muscle lengthening surgery when I was twelve, and taught myself how to walk again in the six months that followed,” she says in the post. “Needless to say, my cerebral palsy taught me to never back down from a challenge.

“Working for President Obama has been the honor of a lifetime,” says Cronin, who is from the Southside of Chicago, “I grew up with President Obama as my senator.”

While at Holy Cross, she interned on the 2012 campaign, and was a White House intern the following summer.

“My disability will never define me, but I would not be the person I am today without it,” she shares. “Learning to walk again definitely helped prepare me for the commitment and persistence it takes to work at the White House.”

View the post on the White House’s Instagram feed

This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Jessica Kennedy