When a Tennessee mother of five received her college degree on May 9, she couldnt see her family cheering in the audience because she is completely blind.Even so, as Amanda Juetten, 47, crossed the stage to accept her degree magna cum laude from Tennessee Tech University, she was more certain than ever about her path forward."Im totally blind," Juetten told Fox News Digital in an interview. "So Ive got my guide dog by my side."FOOD CHOICES THAT CAN BOOST YOUR VISION AND PROTECT AGAINST EYE DISEASE"The two guys I was sitting by told me to follow them we were a team. Im concentrating on shaking all the hands and getting across the stage. I was thinking, This isnt the end. Its really the beginning of whats next."Juetten, who recently became a grandmother, began her college journey nearly 30 years ago, but had to postpone her studies when she had a baby right out of high school and immediately went to work to provide for her new family.She eventually returned to higher education, but in 2020, after years of progressive vision loss from a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, she found herself in the dark literally."I was left totally blind with no skills for blindness," Juetten said. "Over the years, I had been taught a lot of skills for using my remaining vision, but not what to do with no vision at all."GIRL DESPERATE TO SEE THE WORLD BEFORE SHE GOES COMPLETELY BLINDDetermined to regain her independence, she enrolled in an eight-month program at the Colorado Center for the Blind."I thought, I know blind parents make their kids lunches. I know blind parents go to PTA meetings. I can do this. I just need to be around a bunch of other blind people," she recalled."Blind people are not sitting in their basements waiting for the end. Theyre out there living their lives, and I wanted to do that, too."With her new skills and adaptive techniques and a renewed sense of confidence Juetten enrolled at Tennessee Tech in the fall of 2022, pursuing a professional studies degree with a concentration in organizational leadership."Its been great," Juetten said. "The instructors were asking, What are your needs? How can I make this accessible to you? They have been fantastic for doing that. I never got pushback. I didnt get people saying, Why are you taking these classes?"Now, the newly graduated Juetten is advocating for more acceptance and understanding of the blind."The blind need a voice," Juetten said. "I have a voice and I love to use it. I want to help give people the skills to find their voice. We need more teachers and more people in the field who believe in the full capacity of the blind."Next, she plans to pursue a graduate degree in blindness rehabilitation and possibly even a doctorate.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER"I want to begin offering services in assistive technology, Braille and the things Ive learned and am doing well," Juetten said. "I want to teach blind people as a vendor of vocational rehabilitation."Juetten has traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for blindness-related initiatives and to San Francisco to protest rideshare drivers who deny service to passengers with wheelchairs or service animals.She also serves on the board of the National Federation of the Blind of Tennessee and is a past president of the Tennessee Association of Guide Dog Users.Her guide dog, Colonel, is always by her side.For more Health articles, visitwww.foxnews.com/healthJuetten has the below message for anyone facing blindness."You still have the same hopes and dreams," she said. "All of those things that you wanted to do before you were blind, you still want to do those things. So let's find a way to do that."