Born with cerebral palsy, Michael Ham's father wanted him institutionalized. Michael's mother knew that with just the right nurturing, education, and mentors, she could help his brain compensate for the work his body couldn't do. She divorced her husband and left the Florida school district that wanted to restrict her son's learning environment and moved to a small town in Ohio to be closer to family. Being serendipitously assigned to a teaching aide at the junior high school where he enrolled led Michael to meet a group of educators that nurtured Michael's strengths and helped his goals become reality. A nationally awarded public speaker, college graduate, and now volunteer in his own community that embraced him from the start, Beyond the Challenges: A Book of Life Lessons is the story every educator and student that has ever doubted themselves needs to read.