I made a last minute decision this past week to go to Penn College's open house. If you didn't know already that is where I will be attending school in the fall. The open house was primarily for prospective students whereas I am already an accepted student. As we entered the campus, they had signs guiding us this way and that way as to where to park. It was really cool and you could tell they had it very organized and that they cared. When I went through registration, I got a personalized schedule of events that I could attend. The first stop was the Occupational Therapy lab.
In the Occupational Therapy lab, we got to meet the director who will be one of our professors the first year; the college is really small. We also got to meet with current students who were able to give us all the gossip of what to do and what not to do. They also told us what professors to stick with and which ones they don't like. Then I got to go explore all the cool sensory stuff and they had a makeshift snoezelen/multi-sensory environment. They are a therapy room that originated in Europe, but are becoming more popular in the United States. They had ball pits and thinks to touch and all sorts of stuff. I need to focus on my anatomy.
When we were done with the occupational therapy, we went out to lunch at a bagel place that was alright. We had hoped to go to our favorite chicken place, but it was closed. After the bagel place we headed out to find dessert with no success since we had time to waste. Then we arrived back on campus to attend the disability services session.
During the session we learned about the supports and services we can receive at the college. We also got to meet the director and she is a really nice lady. I got to ask her a couple questions and I asked her about there autism programming. I thought they would have a support group or counseling, but they have something way better. They have created a program purely because of there passion for individuals on the spectrum. This is a small college with only one disability specialist and her assistant. They are creating a new program that will help us all exceed. There really shouldn't be any reason that I won't next year. The program has three components.
The first part of the program is an early move-in program. Typical students move in on Saturday. We will move in on Friday. Prior to our move in, we will have volunteer mentors that will have gone through a training the day before. We will meet our mentors and disability services on that friday for orientation. This is only for kids on the spectrum. We will do skits and some role-modeling about handling different experiences on college campus including approaching professors and faculty, more specifically about our needs.
On Saturday morning we will meet up with our mentor and they will help us get settled with our id and all sorts of stuff before everyone else moves in. That leads me to talk about the second part of the program. They have a program starting that will involve mentors. Every student on the spectrum who discloses it will be paired with a mentor. This mentor will meet with them five hours a month. This meeting could be to attend a social event if were insecure, or to help us with our organization. They will be there for us, but we can also be independent. The third part is for kids still in high school so I don't know much about it.
My mother and I walked up to the director at the end of the meeting. I was a bit nervous after all the information from the day. I think it was safe to say I was on information overload and overly tired from the past few days. She said that she had students that met with her once a week to go over their schedule and she sends them a color coated schedule that they can then tweak. The schedule she sends includes a structured time for studying, classes, clubs and the gym. They really want us to exceed and I love how much they really care about what they do.
I wish other college's had programs like this! Its so exciting!!! :)
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