In 1989, right after Gilbertson lost her apartment in the Loma Prieta earthquake, she passed out in her mother's bathroom and fell into a coma. The single mother was then 7-months pregnant with her son, Tyler.

Two and half weeks later, she woke up to a nightmare. Her left side was paralyzed. The doctors told her she had suffered from a traumatic brain injury, classified as an aneurysm. The aneurysm had caused her left side to be paralyzed, which meant she couldn't talk or walk or use her left hand.

The doctors performed an emergency cesarean section to remove Tyler. He was put in an incubator but given only a 50 percent chance of survival.

Gilbertson also had a daughter, Michelle, who was 3 at the time, and she wanted to talk to her little girl but she couldn't.

But Gilbertson didn't give up. She received physical therapy at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.

By watching her son crawl, she learned how to walk again. By taking reading classes at community colleges, she learned how to read again.

Now, 13 years since her injury, Gilbertson, 38, will graduate from De Anza College this summer with an associate degree in physical therapist assistance. What's more, her inspiring story has won her the prestigious President's Award from De Anza's president, Martha Kanter.

As her counselor Pauline Waathiq says in her letter of recommendation for the award, "Kim is indeed the survivor she calls herself. In these times when the term 'survivor' has been co-opted for entertainment and financial purposes, its truth still resonates when one knows Kim."

Gilbertson says she has had strong determination since she was little.

"I have seven brothers. I used to wrestle with them and pin them down on the floor," Gilbertson says. "As the second youngest in my family, I have to prove to my brothers that I am better than they are or at least as good as they are. So when doctors told me I could never walk again, I wanted to show they were wrong."

It took her one year to walk again. She trained herself to do things with her left hand. Gradually she could move her left side although she still doesn't have the sense of feel on that side.

"I burned my left hand once when I was cooking but I didn't know until I smelled something burning," Gilbertson says as if it were a joke.

Once she could move more freely, Gilbertson took on another challenge. She wanted to read again. But because of the brain injury, she can't spell. When she reads a book, she has to read it aloud, and she reads it over and over again to fully comprehend the text.

"I don't like to lose control," Gilbertson says. "I don't accept that I have a disability."

Gilbertson got interested in physical therapy assistance when she took a course in the subject at Cabrillo College. Then in 2000, she joined De Anza's physical therapist assistance department.

While at De Anza, Gilbertson worked part-time in her department, helping physically disabled people, who the department refers to as "students."

Instructor associate Ellen Mann says Gilbertson was one of the most popular therapist assistants.

"Kim could really empathize with the students because she has been there," Mann says. "While some know how it feels only from outside in, she knows it from inside out."

Instructor Mary Bennett says many students like Gilbertson for her discipline and passion.