Great grads: Brian Ghezelaiagh, Comsewogue High School

Brian Ghezelaiagh is beating the odds. The 17-year-old has received guaranteed admission to medical school after he attains his bachelor's degree.

He is also legally blind. Born with a birth defect that left gaps in his retinal membranes, he can see only about three feet ahead. Still, he was able to meet the technical standards to get into the joint bachelor of arts-medical doctorate program at Brooklyn College and SUNY Downstate Medical Center. He wants to become a psychiatrist.

One of the top 10 students in his class, he has worked toward a black belt in kung fu and volunteers at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson.

Some people questioned his plan to apply for medical school, Ghezelaiagh says, but he was determined.

"When someone asks you what you want to be, and you say a doctor and they say great, and you say you have a visual impairment - it's not typically a profession pursued by someone with a disability," he says.

"He has faced adversity with constant maturity and grace and has taught us about the power of the human spirit," school psychologist Cara Spencer says.