Independent Living
Independent-Living Advisors visit students weekly. The advisor helps students apply the skills they learned during the two-year core program, including:
- Money management
- Meal planning and preparation
- Apartment maintenance
- Living with roommates
- Health and safety
- Structuring free time
Advising is offered both individually and in small-group meetings.
Getting and Keeping a Job
The goal for students is to work in a paid job in their field of study. The Job Placement Specialist helps students do that and deal with work issues.
Focus is placed on:
- Getting used to a new work environment
- Developing good work habits
- Dealing well with coworkers and supervisors
- Showing responsibility, a positive attitude, and organization skills
The most important goal is to help students use the skills they need to succeed at their new jobs.
The June Seminar
Transition Year begins with a nine-day seminar in early June on campus. Through workshops and structured follow-up activities, students focus on:
- Making roommate decisions in a responsible way
- Finding apartments for September
- Establishing themselves with leisure-time organizations
- Preparing realistic independent-living routines for the fall
- Establishing themselves with a job collaborative
- Investigating good job possibilities for their return in September
When the June Seminar ends, students will have a survival kit for use when they return to the program. Students will also take home assignments to complete over the summer.
Students Also Take Three Courses and Engage in Service Learning
1. Job Club
This course helps students living in apartments to manage their time, including:
- A job search
- Going to classes
- Managing apartment- and leisure time
Students must go to the classes on Monday mornings until they have a job.
Students learn the importance of:
- Balancing their lives
- Using their planners
- Concentrating on their apartments
- Having a job
- Going to class
- Doing homework
- Dressing well for class and work
There are in-class discussions and hands-on tasks. Students get and give job tips and support. Field trips to Career Source are a part of class activities. Students also complete an electronic job-search journal each week.
2. Learning to Make Decisions Through Young-Adult Literature and Film
Students read two books and view films. Discussions about them help students make decisions about their new, independent lives. Students also learn to budget for and plan trips. Working in groups helps to make decisions.
3. Connecting through Technology
Students use technology to:
- Make friends
- Develop social skills
- Learn about themselves
- Plan trips
- Host visitors from out of town
4. Service Learning
Students also have the opportunity to explore and develop a service-learning project as a group by the end of the program.
For Graduates of Transition Year Only
Learning, Working, and Living Well: Social Issues for People with Special Needs
This course is about issues related to people with disabilities. Students learn about intellectual, physical, and emotional diversity. Students also learn how living with different abilities can affect:
- School
- Work
- Leisure
- Social life
- Other aspects of daily living
The course covers:
- Disability law
- Skills for self-advocacy
- How our society thinks of people who may be different
To take this course, students must be graduates of the two-year core program. They also must have approval from the Director of the Threshold Program.