Full Transcript
Summer Transition Program at State Services for the Blind
Jeff: The Summer Transition Program. Stp is a comprehensive residential transition program for students who are blind, visually impaired or deaf blind, and today they visited State Services for the blind (SSB), to learn more what state services for the blind can do for them. As over 20 students from the Summer Transition Program arrived at State Services for the blind. I was greeted by one of the teachers, Nick Hatfield.
Nick: Jeff Thompson, Nick Hatfield.
Jeff: How are you doing?
Nick: Good. Bringing the STP crew. Big group this year.
This is Nick Hadfield. I’m a teacher of the blind and visually impaired orientation mobility specialist for 916. Also got to throw in there. One of the managers for the Minnesota Wild blind hockey.
Jeff: There you go.
Nick: This year we have about 20 students who are attending our summer transition program. And the Summer transition program is a program that’s a collaboration between state services for the blind, the Department of Education, and each individual student’s member district or their school district, their home school district. And what it is, is a transition program that focuses on independent living skills everything from job shadowing, job readiness, skills orientation, mobility skills, getting ready for college and advocacy skills, working on any of those soft and hard skills, technology, you name it. Also the opportunity for social skills, cooking. We are living in the dorms and University of Saint Thomas for ten days. We’re one of the longest running programs in the country over 40 years, so it’s a fantastic program that we have many opportunities for students to kind of finalize those skills right before they head off into the real world, and it’s a fantastic opportunity. Every year, a lot of these students actually know each other through other camps, whether it’s at the lighthouse or summer camps at mSAB or different regional events. So it is fun, especially for the students that are from farther away from the Twin Cities. So they maybe are a little bit more rural and have never been exposed to something like this. So we have a great group of students this year and we are having a great time. So we’re here at SSB today to listen to a little bit of what services are available. And a lot of them know a little bit, but this is just another opportunity for them to hear a little bit from Jesse and Technology and Shane and overall things, and listen to some of the employment and employability types of information that’s out there. So yeah, we’re here for a good time and be here for a little bit and then make our way back to campus.
Hannah: Hi, I’m Hannah Edwards, STP is such a great, unique thing that SSB provides for students that are going through transition age. It helps them come together. It helps them have that collaboration with others, get to know each other. Not only that, but it helps them kind of learn some skills and techniques that they might not have had before or may have received the information, but they’re getting it in a different way, and which is so wonderful because I tend to learn things better in a classroom setting instead of being online or on the phone and things like that. So I think that it gives the opportunity to have people actually learn things in a way that’s more accessible for them and not only that, they have that connection piece with all the other people that are attending. I guess when I started at State Services for the Blind. I had no idea all the things that were coming out of this building the audio services, the talking book, the engineering, the fact that we help people with technology, all of those essential things. The Braille library. I mean, it’s really cool to visualize or be present in all the things that are available so that they actually resonate in that and possibly can think of that in the future if they were needing to access that or have the need to do that.
Jeff: Each student participated in mock interviews as applicants with professionals conducting the interviews, the employment team at SSB presented employment workshops involving the job market, job readiness and tips on the job interview.
Tou: Hi, my name is tou. I’m the Transition work Opportunities Navigator or one of them at least. My other colleague is Randi Lasher. We both are the transition navigators at SSB. In our work we do primarily three things. The first is to provide career exploration, which revolves around learning about labor market information, which could include information interviews which could learn more about anything related to a career. And the second thing is to learn about post-secondary options, which could include researching majors online, touring a school, or connecting with current students in that campus that they’re interested in. And the last thing that Transition Navigator does is we help students look for work. And so that could be paid or unpaid, and it could be looking for internships, and it could be anything related to looking for work, like preparing a resume or getting ready for an interview, or connecting with the employer themselves to help the students gain the upper hand.
Randi: I’m Randi Lasher. I’m one of our transition work opportunity navigators with SSB. I work with students on all things pre-employment transition services, so that includes things like career readiness, college readiness, instruction, and self-advocacy, and gaining work experience, and my role is just to help support students and figuring out next steps as they prepare for life after high school.
Hannah: Hi, I’m Hannah Edwards, I’m an employment specialist with State Services for the Blind. What I do is help blind and deaf blind people find careers, work towards their goals, talk to them about their fears, kind of face those to help practice for interviews, whatever they need. Ready to get ready for career pathways. I am personally have been in this community for a while now, especially in the deafness community. My parents are both deaf and so I grew up doing sign language. I went to school to be a sign language interpreter, and then I started job coaching for blind and deaf blind people with Stone Arch Employment Services. I started working for VR in the deaf and hard of hearing office as a technician, and now I work for State Services for the blind as an employment specialist, and I couldn’t be happier to be able to share my skills and abilities with those that work with me.
Kate: Show of hands Y’all, this is Kate. How many of you are like ramblers? Ramblers like you? You’re answering, you know, and you tell a story. So a couple how many of you are the short answers? The one sentences. So we all need to know who we are in an interview. Right. So the Ramblers, you know, I bet you can guess who I am in this context. I am a rambler. And so I got to button it up. I got to tighten it up. I got to stay on point. So when I prepare, I have to keep my story clear, right? And I have to hone it down. Those of us who are more introverted or more shy or just much more clear about our words, we got to think in like, build the story right and maybe reflect on it in advance. And so a good rule of thumb in an interview is 1 minute to 2 minutes for a question, and that can feel like an eternity to some of us. And just like a snap of a fingers to the ramblers in the room, you got to give yourself a little space. Preparing will make a difference. The most amazing interviewees they prepare. This is not a context that comes easy to any of us. And so when in doubt, spending an hour tops is going to make a huge difference in your interview.
Tou: It’s just great to see all the students in one place. Generally in our work we meet students 1 to 1, so to see students in a more group oriented space, it’s just refreshing to the work scene.
Randi: It’s been awesome. We have such a full house this year, which is really fun. Last year was my first year at STP and it’s fun to see that we have fully stocked room of students and I think just a great energy. Everything I’ve heard from students I’ve talked with is that they’re really enjoying their time and that it’s been impactful so far, so hopefully the rest of the week continues to go well for them and they have lots to take home.
Amy: Hi, I’m Amy, I’m one of the SSB peer ambassadors. I do remember when I came here to SSB when I was a student at STP, and it was a really fun experience. So it’s really great to be a part of that now as someone facilitating an event for them, like a game. It was so fun and I really enjoyed getting able to spend time with the students.
Maddy: Hi, I’m Maddy, I’m a peer ambassador at SSB. I’ve been having a really good time here visiting the STP students. It’s been really great getting to reconnect with some people I saw last year and getting to learn more about SSB even then, more than I already knew. And it’s really fun getting to talk to students and connect with them.
Amy: I got O&M training to learn my routes for my classes.
Maddy: It’s been really fun and kind of interesting because yeah, I’ve already gone through it all. And so getting to hear about their experiences and it kind of, you know, getting deja vu, thinking about it. But it’s fun hearing about how their camp experience, how they’re doing some things that we didn’t do and how they’re doing some of the same things we did. Yeah, it’s been great.
Amy: I learned about the roles of the counselors and what they really do for the students, as well as all the different resources that SSB has here, like the communication center, especially because they can provide many different materials in accessible format for anybody.
Jeff: Technology specialist Jesse Anderson talked about accessible technology and tools for success from a blindness perspective, and Jeff Behl gave the students a tour of the communication center. The communication center provides access to essential information for school, work and everyday life, whether it’s a textbook, a family cookbook or the latest bestseller. Read on your tablet, smartphone, computer, in Braille, or on a digital book player. The communication center offers braille transcription, audio services and a 24 over seven radio talking book service. The State Services for the Blind Communication Center allows you to get your material, how you want it and when you want it. Live. Work. Read. Succeed.
Amy: I’ve been having so much fun talking to people and just socializing. It’s really fun for me. It’s really cool to see. The next generation, as I call it, of people. It’s amazing.
Jeff: to find out more about all the programs at State Services for the blind, contact Shane.DeSantis@state.MN.US. That’s Shane dot D e s a n t i s at State.MN.US. That’s Shane.DeSantis@state.MN.US. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Be sure to contact your state services for the blind. Your Voc Rehab and find out what they can do for you. Live. Work. Read. Succeed. For more podcasts with a Blindness Perspective, check us out on the web at BlindAbilities.Com, on Twitter at BlindAbilities, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the App Store and Google Play Store. That’s two words, blind Abilities. And if you want to leave some feedback, give us some suggestions. Give us a call at (612) 367-6093. We’d love to hear from you.
I want to thank you for listening. And until next time, bye-bye.
[Music] [Transition noise] –
When we share-
What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.