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Disabled Students Can Migrate to College Campuses

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 August 2005, 03:01 CDT

Chris Campbell finally felt like an adult.

The 21-year-old with Down syndrome was out of high school and on a university campus, where he has a job, classes and leisure activities.

Virginia allows disabled students to attend high school after graduation or until they are 21 or 22. Although Campbell was still enrolled at Montgomery County Public Schools, he didn't have to finish up at Christiansburg High School. Instead, he was on Radford University's campus, where students are closer to him in age.

The "on-campus transition program" -- the first in the state -- is being piloted for the state Department of Education.

The second year of the pilot program starts with the beginning of classes later this month.

"It's wonderful," Rachel Janney, professor of special education at Radford University, said of the new program, which she describes as "state of the art."

A school bus picked Campbell up at home and dropped him at the university during the week this past spring.

He reported to the school's transition coordinator before heading to a day filled with music therapy, a part-time job, lunch and leisure activities.

At high school, "I've been treated with no respect at all," Campbell said. But around campus, he's found people to be friendlier. An instructional aide employed by Montgomery County stayed with Campbell during most of the day.

The aide, H. Jay Adkins, shadowed Campbell on campus during his job at one of the state's Training and Technical Assistance Center. The center increases educational opportunities for young people with disabilities.

At work, Campbell earned $5.15 an hour making copies, entering data into a computer and handling the mail, among other duties.

"Chris is, for the most part, independent," Adkins said last spring. "I'm here if he needs me."

On a morning in March at the office of Nancy Landes, who coordinates the program at Radford University, Landes asked Campbell to organize a box of materials for their next presentation.

The duo has traveled around the region talking to school systems about the new program. Landes had already booked five presentations.

"I'm not his teacher," she said. "I'm his agent."

Landes structured the program after several similar ones in Maryland.

"The idea is that we continue to provide special education services but in an age-appropriate setting," Landes said.

Last year, the launch year, two students completed the program at Radford University. Seven took part at Virginia Tech.

This year, five are scheduled for the Radford program, Landes said. The number at Tech was not available Friday.

The Virginia Board for People with Disabilities has provided a two-year, $49,000 grant for the program. Montgomery County Public Schools is paying for staffing, transportation and materials. The universities are providing space, technology and expertise.

Campbell's schedule included hour-long music therapy classes each week with John Snyder, a senior majoring in music therapy.

Snyder helped Campbell develop his gross and fine motor skills with the guitar. Campbell's math, grammar, spelling and social abilities also improved with the therapy.

"His speaking is clear," Snyder said on the last day of class. "He's opened up to me. I've seen progress in math."

During free time, Campbell worked out at a university fitness center, plays basketball, bowls and walks around campus with his camera. Students carry cell phones so they can be easily reached.

Wayne Zellers coordinates the program at Tech.

Not only do his students have part-time jobs, they have access to computers in Newman Library and a variety of undergraduate classes.

In April, Samantha Brumfield, 19, restocked the bakery case at Tech's Deet's Place. She got the part-time job as part of the county's transition program.

Instead of spending another year at Blacksburg High School, Brumfield, who is "developmentally delayed," finished up on Tech's campus.

She took a Montgomery County school bus to the nearest Blacksburg Transit to the Hokie Express to her job.

"I think it's a really nice program because I get to interact with all the college students," Brumfield said.

"People here are different," she added. "I think they're more mature."

During the week, Brumfield got reading tutoring through the YMCA Book Buddies program on campus, and this spring, she took a public speaking class with the help of her instructional aide, Sarah Wieber.

During one of Brumfield's classes in April, Wieber sat in the back of the large lecture hall and took notes while Brumfield sat closer to the front.

"It's really good for her to sit by herself," Wieber said.

After class, graduate teaching assistant Arin Dickerson said Montgomery County's program works because instructional aides take notes in class and cater tests and quizzes to the high schoolers' needs.

"If I was over 18, I wouldn't want to be back in high school," Dickerson said.

Teaching students to live independently is a goal of Landes and Zellers, so they are exploring broadening their programs beyond the regular school day and year.

Landes envisions a partnership between the schools and community in Radford to provide a setting in which students could learn to cook, pay bills, shop for groceries, do laundry and more.

This summer, Zellers visited a year-round residential program at Leslie University in Massachusetts to get ideas.

Between June 13 and 17, he arranged for five students to stay overnight with chaperones in Tech's Harper Hall to teach them more about college life. They ate in the dormitories, went to their part- time jobs, studied, explored the university and went on field trips.

He also took five students by plane to New York City to show them "things outside of Blacksburg."

A month before the trip, Brumfield's eyes grew huge as she looked online at the weight room in the Marriott Marquis, where students would be staying.

"That is huge," she said.

Brumfield doesn't have a plan for after finishing school. But the Blacksburg native, who hasn't left a tri-state area, wants to travel the world and "see the sights and stuff."

Campbell has become an advocate for young people like himself. He would like to make a career of advocacy work. During presentations about Montgomery County's new on-campus option for disabled students who have graduated, he said:

"Being in this program makes me feel happy. It also makes me feel good knowing that I could start a life on my own."

Source: Roanoke Times & World News

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