Trevon Jenifer: From the Ground Up »

It's impossible to walk a mile in Trevon Jenifer's shoes, because he doesn't wear any. Jenifer was born without legs, a condition called congenital amputation. Despite growing up in a poor, crime-infested neighborhood just outside Washington, D.C., Jenifer let neither his body, his environment, nor his family's financial hardship deter him from pursuing dreams any two-legged person would have.Those pursuits were limited to wheelchair sports in his first 15 years, but Jenifer dreamed of playing with the rest of society. When his family sacrificed its savings for his safety and moved to a predominantly white, middle-class suburb before his junior year in high school, Jenifer, at the urging of his stepfather, decided to try out for the school's wrestling team. Even though he had never wrestled and had no friends on the team, Jenifer yearned to play a contact sport and was ready for a new challenge.