Disability Is a Matter of Perception
“Disability is a matter of perception; if you can do one thing right, you’re needed
by someone.”-Martina Navratilova
The students in the PEP (Pre-Employment Program) seem to be always in
motion. Students from PEP have painted the walls in the Cosmetology room, done
laundry for Culinary, helped with copying and delivering papers to classrooms and
washed rags for various shops. They run the school store, where they can learn
about retail sales, customer service, and inventory. The PEP students also have
amazing school spirit, as their group has more students volunteer at the annual
car show each year than any other group in the school!
“We look beyond the standard of reading, writing and arithmetic. We do
extra things, (and) the more the students can do, the more confidence they
attain,” said Mr. Foisey, the program’s shop teacher of five years. “Mr. Choleva
and I think outside the box and try to come up with different ways to inspire and
gain (our student’s) confidence,” added Foisey, when I asked what makes this
program different from other Special Education programs.
One of the most important goals that the PEP team of Mr. Choleva, Mr.
Foisey, Mrs. Stafford, Mrs. Willis, and Mr. Ellis try to achieve when working in PEP
is to let their students know that they are most definitely needed.
Making jelly bean dispensers was just one of the creative projects that PEP
students were involved with recently! Students, such as Cordell and Aaron, love
doing hands-on activities and working with power tools. Doing things in shop and
around the school are great activities for helping the students in PEP gain
confidence, be creative and acquire skills for future jobs. They learn skills like
auto-detailing, which one former student used to get a job at Hyundai.
Many of the students said that what they really enjoyed about being in the
program is that it was “like family.” One student named Evan said, “The place has
a good feel; the teachers are kind, everyone is nice and it definitely does feel like
a family.”
Although you may know some of the PEP students, you may not know that
Nick Salidino does weight training and power lifting at the YMCA to become a
professional Skier. Ricky does outdoor work like mowing lawns, shoveling and
snow-blowing for fun. He wants to do landscape work when he is older. Brandon,
otherwise known as “Skiff,” is a very technical student who likes to get into the
mechanics of things, like finding old items that people threw out and figuring out
how to fix them. Max likes to make movie trailers and one day would like to be a
movie director.
PEP is a very extraordinary group of kids and our school appreciates
everything that they do!
RELATED: Watch this TedEd talk by Special Olympics champion Matthew Williams.