Kayla Bahri

Kayla Bahri is used to defying expectations. At just 20 years old, she is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business management. But as a child born legally blind as a result of a rare eye condition known as a dislocated lens in Antigua, she was assured her big aspirations had far greater limits

Kayla would spend much of her childhood traveling from her Caribbean home to the Bascon Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, hoping scientists would develop a treatment that could restore her vision. She recalls doctors saying she would never do well in school or develop normally. Kayla, who enrolled at FIU in 2019 when she was 16, proved everyone one.

She lived on campus and depended on her cellphone to help her zoom in on the world, whether she needed to see the crosswalk or the text in her books. Thankfully, modern medicine caught up and offered her hope. In 2021, an eye doctor in New Jersey performed Kayla’s successful surgery, significantly improving her quality of life.

Kayla says that when asked if she would change anything in her life, she says her experiences have made her who she is today. She believes that with persistence, everything is possible.

Michelle Lopez
Assistant Director of Communications
FIU Business