Think College!

From Tina:

Tomorrow Daniela and I leave to go to Myrtle Beach S. Carolina. Is this a beach vacation? Nope. (Luckily for us - since it's supposed to be 65 degrees and storming). We are headed down for an interview at Coastal Carolina University's LIFE program. This will be Daniela's third interview this spring. She's excited and confident (and packing enough clothes for a week visit instead of 2 nights).

We will be writing in depth next week about her interviews and her experiences visiting the different programs. But tonight I thought I would tell people about how we got to this unexpected development in her life.

Never, since the early years after Daniela's adoption, when we knew she was facing some considerable challenges in her life, did we think she would be capable of being able to handle living away from home in a university setting. In fact, we didn't save money for a college fund for her as we did her big sister. That sounds unfair, and it is, but we knew we would be spending money for other things as she was growing up - special therapies, Dr.s, and the other expenses that rush at you when you raise a child with considerable special needs. Now, we are quite willing to dig deep to pay for this new experience, an experience which we hope will have a substantial payoff for her future.

A little over a year ago, we were facing the end of Daniela's high school career and graduation with a "special" diploma. Frankly, the prospects looked a little bleak for her immediate future. She could remain in school until her 22nd birthday, but we couldn't see any real purpose in that. We live in the small county of Gloucester in Virginia. Daniela had a terrific experience in the county schools. They brought her farther than we dreamed, but their post high school program does not now offer anything different than she was getting before graduation. There just didn't seem to be much out there for her. We wondered if she would ever be able to hold down a job, to live on her own. Scary......

In hopes of hearing of some new options, last March Daniela and I attended Virginia's Transition Forum, a three day conference offering many choices in workshops and resources on the subject of special education students transitioning into adult life. The Forum really opened our eyes and sparked Daniela's interest in becoming more independent AND in going off to college. We ate lunch with a lovely young woman who had attended a model program at a community college in Richmond and we heard that many programs were opening up at colleges across the country for students with intellectual disabilities. How exciting! We didn't find out about any specific programs, but just the idea had Daniela talking about it the whole drive home.

When we got home, the first thing we did was google - "college intellectual disability". What popped up was a web-site that that propelled our lives down an entirely new path. The web-site was thinkcollege.net

On the web-site's database, we found many of those new post-secondary programs at colleges and other schools. We looked at many of the program web-sites and over the days and weeks to come, went back to the Think College site time and time again. We realized we had missed the deadline to apply last year, but also realized, after looking at Think College and the program websites, that Daniela actually needed to have some other challenges in her life first to see if she could even handle going away to college. We, including Daniela, had some doubts. We knew she needed some experiences working, going to some vocational training, volunteering, and just being away from home. If she could handle all of these things, we knew she would have a greater chance of being accepted and succeeding at a post-secondary program.

The search was on. Fairly quickly, I found a wonderful month long (free!!) culinary arts program for individuals with disabilities at the Positive Vibe Cafe (see web-link). Daniela handled the interview well and was accepted to the program. We signed her up for a 2 week young adult camp in the mountains with Easter Seals. I found a local week-long youth volunteer camp with local churches called Helping Hands (which I volunteered with as well).

We had a multi-agency meeting at school, where we decided (with Daniela taking the lead and making the decisions) that she would go to school part-time this past year to work on her math and English skills, and also work with a job coach. ( The support I got from the school, and also Daniela's vocational rehabilitation and community services case workers was overwhelming. They were willing do to whatever they needed to do to make Daniela's dream come true.) On the other weekdays, Daniela would work (at a sheltered workshop) and volunteer. She has written about her volunteer jobs - in January, the animal shelter replaced the workshop which she felt, rightly, that she had outgrown.

In every situation we have placed her in, Daniela has more than met the challenge. She has truly blossomed! Her maturity and sense of responsibility have grown exponentially. We no longer have any doubts that Daniela could succeed away from home at a post-secondary program. Now we just have to find the one that best suits her needs. Again, Think College has helped us so much in narrowing down the options. The professionals in charge of the site (and authors of the book) have been entirely approachable and open to questions, despite lecturing all over the U.S on the benefits of college for students with disabilities.

To finish this long, long post, I'll end by letting you know that yesterday, Think College asked Daniela if it would be alright to feature this blog in their web-site's student section (look under student blogs). What an honor! She was just thrilled! We both hope so much that this blog will help other families, students, schools, and professionals see that there is so much hope now for our kids with intellectual disabilities. Give them a chance to stretch past their limitations. They may very well knock your socks off!

All the best,

Tina