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| | Dane watches from his wheelchair—a cacophony of colors, sounds, movement, voices.His classmates hold rainbow-striped djembes of varying sizes between their knees. They strike the African drums with the palms of their hands to produce resonant, interweaving beats—some low and bassy, others high, like wooden hammers plunking on upside-down buckets. One student acts as the class metronome, clanging a cowbell in a steady thunk, thunk to keep time. Down in the center of McLennan 174’s tiered semicircle of desks, Dr. Allison Alcorn tickles a simple melody from the keys of a grand piano. Dane revels in the music, the atmosphere. His aide, Iris, looks on by his side—trained in Peruvian dance, she accompanies him to Survey of World Music each week. He cannot grasp a drum or drumsticks, but Dane joins in the commotion by hitting crumpled pieces of paper together. Though he cannot speak, his feelings find expression in loud, exuberant vocalizations. At the familiar sound, his classmates smile. They love to hear Dane laugh. | Students with cognitive disabilities resulting from disorders such as autism and Down Syndrome, or diseases such as cerebral palsy, rarely get to enjoy the college experience their parents once dreamed they would. At Trinity, however, a unique partnership with Illinois’s Northern Suburban Special Education District (NSSED) allows special-needs students, ages 18-21, to audit undergraduate classes, work at campus jobs, and socialize with college-age peers while they remain enrolled in NSSED’s Educational and Life Skills Program. In 1998, NSSED tried unsuccessfully to find space on a local college campus to hold classes for their college-age students. Big on the principles of inclusion and age-appropriate peer interaction, the special education district did not want to compromise when it came to creating an environment for their young adult students to learn real-world social and life skills. Hearing of NSSED’s need, Trinity’s Professor of Education Dr. Carol Kennett approached the special education district that summer with an idea sparked by her visit to a university in Georgia. Her proposal? Trinity and NSSED could form a partnership in which education majors at Trinity would spend time socializing with and mentoring their special-needs peers. According to Jennifer Pearson, administrator of the Educational and Life Skills Program, this partnership with Trinity was a key component that led to the approval of the transition program. | “Because the parents and the board felt so strongly that age-appropriate peer interaction was so important, without the TIU component the nonclassroom-based transition program would not have been approved,” Pearson said. “Because NSSED had gone so far with inclusion, they didn’t want to go back.” The Educational and Life Skills Program began with a class of five in 2000. Today, they enroll more than thirty. NSSED teachers Kathy Farley and Mary Kennedy visit Trinity’s Introduction to Special Education class and invite the Trinity students to consider partnering with a special-needs peer for the semester. Dr. Peter Wright, assistant professor of education, teaches the Introduction to Special Education course and asks his students to keep a journal of their experiences. He shared quotes from past students with his new class this semester: It seemed to be a big jump out of my comfort zone,” one student commented. “However, after a few long games of UNO, I had adjusted completely and fallen in love with the unique qualities that each student brought to the experience.” “Don’t worry about feeling like you don’t do enough with them,” said another. “We played basketball with them every week, and the six students I was with enjoyed it very much. Even just sitting with them was good enough. Also, be yourself around them. They accept you however you are, so do the same for them.” “The NSSED experience has blessed and enriched my perspective as a future teacher,” said a third. |  |
| Avi and Stefan Like Dane, some NSSED students audit Trinity classes for enrichment and additional social interaction. Associate Professor of Music Dr. Allison Alcorn serves as faculty liaison to NSSED. She helps match special-needs students with appropriate courses that appeal to their interests. Students have audited education, geography, health and wellness, history, and writing classes at Trinity—but beginning with Dane, many have found their way into Dr. Alcorn’s own Survey of World Music class. “Everyone who takes that class loves it,” said Farley. “Allison is stellar. She is embracing and inclusive without effort. It’s just part of her being.” Last spring, Dr. Alcorn’s auditors included Avi and Stefan—students whom Kennedy describes as “polar opposites.” Outgoing and personable, Avi sings, volunteers at his synagogue, and has taken a variety of classes, such as Irish folk singing, at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Stefan is more serious, writes songs on his own, and with help from his dad puts them to music in Garageband on his computer. “They both want to be involved with music for the rest of their lives,” Kennedy said. Dr. Alcorn’s class performed two songs in chapel during the African American Festival that semester. Her Trinity students, knowing firsthand of Avi and Stefan’s passion for music, had insisted that the two have a solo during the performance—so on that day, Avi and Stefan sang two verses of a hymn, accompanied on the Technicolor djembes by their Trinity friends. |
“People are fearful of individuals with disabilities and special needs, but the TIU/NSSED partnership program allows all of us at Trinity to get over our fears and interact with these valuable, amazing people.”
–Amy Croft, Director of Career Services for Trinity College
| Kenny and the Bears Jersey Stop by the Meyer Sports Complex on any afternoon between 1:30 and 3:00, and you may run into Kenny Dempsey. Practically all of the student athletes and coaches at Trinity know him. This is his second year working with supervisor Angie, doing laundry, basic cleaning, bandages—and lots of socializing. Like several other NSSED students, Kenny was paired with a supervisor and placed in a campus job that provides ample opportunity for developing not only practical skills but great friendships. Kenny, a huge Chicago Bears fan, counts former Trinity Trojans football defensive coordinator Mikal Smith among his buddies. Last year, Coach Smith surprised Kenny with a Bears jersey autographed by his father, Lovie Smith, and the entire Super Bowl XLI Bears team. Kenny’s teacher, Kathy Farley, said that her student feels very much a part of the campus. Before work, Kenny sometimes eats lunch at Melton with the Trinity students. “He just feels like this is his college experience,” she said. Trinity’s Director of Career Services Amy Croft works with NSSED Vocational Coordinator Jennifer Doerscheln to place students like Kenny in jobs at the sports complex, Melton Dining Hall, Mail Services, Rolfing Library, and Institutional &Auxiliary Services. For five years now, Croft has recruited Trinity Work-Study students to be student supervisors and peer mentors and has assisted in the pairing of the Trinity and NSSED students. This partnership with NSSED has enabled Trinity to tap into community-based Work-Study money that was not being used before. So far, Croft has heard nothing but good things from those involved. “People are fearful of individuals with disabilities and special needs, but the TIU/NSSED partnership program allows all of us at Trinity to get over our fears and interact with these valuable, amazing people,” she said. “It is our privilege to know and walk with them during their college-age years.” |  | A Unique PartnershipJennifer Pearson thinks briefly. “As far as I know, it was the first of its kind.” The involvement between Trinity and NSSED is unique, Kathy Farley and Mary Kennedy also said. Though other special education schools use college campuses in some capacity, several aspects of the partnership between NSSED and Trinity make it distinct—from the concept of special-needs students bringing their laundry to the dorms to practice with same-age peers, to the use of Work-Study money to hire student supervisors. According to Dr. Alcorn, when the Illinois State Board of Education conducted their scheduled review of Trinity’s School of Education, they were “very impressed” by this unique partnership. Trinity students—and the education majors in particular—benefit from frequent, direct exposure to and interaction with students with cognitive disabilities, preparing them for similar interactions in the future. They learn to overcome their fears of the different, as Amy Croft said. Beyond that, Dr. Alcorn points out the fact that Trinity has become a witness to these NSSED students and their parents. Although Trinity students cannot carry on conversations about religion or listen to Christian music with their special-needs peers (since NSSED is a secular, public school district), they witness without words and through love, acceptance, and friendship—through games of UNO, nights out to see Blue Man Group, hugs at Melton, Bears fever, and afternoons in the laundry room. | Lights were dimmed in the Arnold T. Olson Chapel, and the stage was set for another spring musical, as Dr. Chris Teichler directed the orchestra in the overture to You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Dr. Alcorn sat in the pit, surrounded by students from her music classes. From their vantage point, they could not see much of the audience. As the musical unfolded, however, it was not long before a familiar sound rose from the back of the chapel above the music—loud grunts, a happy, laughing sound. All around her, her students sat up and spoke in excited whispers: “It’s Dane! It’s Dane!” “Dane’s here!” At the intermission, the pit emptied, and Dr. Alcorn’s students rushed to the back. “They recognized him,” she said. “He was communicating; they recognized his communication, and they went out to find him. “That’s when I thought, All right, we’re doing something here.” |
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