An encounter with Augusta State University junior Elijah Carter is hard to forget.

Just ask Jennie Brantley, the building manager at Augusta State's University Hall.

"Excuse me. Are you Elijah?" Ms. Brantley asked the Appling resident one day last week when she saw him on a sofa in University Hall.

Ms. Brantley had heard Mr. Carter speak recently at a luncheon honoring students who participated in High School High Tech, a community-based program that gives youths with disabilities a link to academic and career-development experiences.

She wanted to tell Mr. Carter how much his speech meant to her.

"He was just such an inspiration to me just to listen to him talk, and he encouraged me for my son's future," Ms. Brantley said.

Her son, Ryan Brantley, participated in High School High Tech and also spoke at the meeting.

Mr. Carter, a 2005 Greenbrier High School graduate and a psychology major at Augusta State, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was 18 months old, but he said he never has let his physical condition slow him down.

"My abilities and my gifts are from God," he said. "He is the one that has given me all the strength that I need. He's inspired me to be positive and upbeat in spite of my circumstances."

Mr. Carter said he has had plenty of additional help from his parents and his brother.

He called his brother "my right hand and my left hand, and sometimes my right foot and my left foot."

He also credited his grandfather, Henry Lee Carter, who "drove (me) around for 18 years," and his friend Elise Murray, who took notes for him in a political science class, for helping him succeed.

"I can be inspired, too. I'm really no different than anybody else," Mr. Carter said.

Though he did not participate in High School High Tech, Mr. Carter worked with Terri Bartels, a vocational rehabilitation counselor, when he attended Greenbrier.

"She put my motivation in the proper direction," Mr. Carter said. "She made sense of all the academic stuff. I had the motivation. I just really didn't quite know what to do with it."

He said he hopes to become a family therapist, an aspiration that dates back to his high school years when he shadowed his pastor at Kiokee Baptist Church for his senior project.

He said he enjoyed the counseling and outreach aspects of his pastor's job.

"I just want to sit down and talk to folks," Mr. Carter said. "The reason I chose marriage and family is that's where it starts."

Mr. Carter said he wanted the High School High Tech audience members to find their passion and "get fired up" to do something with their lives. He said he was trying to "hit the heart" with a meaningful message in his speech.

"That's what God can do if you're available," he said. "And you've got to admit that sometimes it's going to be pretty scary to be available."

Reach Betsy Gilliland at (706) 868-1222, ext. 113, or betsy.gilliland@augustachronicle.com.