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Podcast Summary:
In this episode of Blind Abilities, Jeff Thompson speaks with three professionals from State Services for the Blind (SSB)—Kate Larson, Randi Lasher, and Shane DeSantis—who support students with vision loss as they prepare for life after high school. They share helpful tips about applying for college, getting financial aid (like FAFSA and scholarships), gaining job experience through internships, and working closely with counselors for support. They also talk about the importance of accessibility, orientation and mobility, and how internships and campus resources can help you feel confident and ready to succeed in college and beyond.
To learn more about the services available through State Services for the Blind and how they can support your independence, contact Shane DeSantis at Shane.DeSantis@state.mn.us or call 651-385-5205.
Full Transcript:
{Music}
Kate Larson:
I think that’s part of where that communication is really key. If you are starting to struggle or are concerned with something, reaching out and saying something to your counselor, just ensures that we can be there to kind of walk alongside you and get you additional supports or resources.
Shane Desantis:
There are so many scholarship opportunities out there. There’s some locally, there’s some nationally, there’s some specific to blindness and vision loss, and there’s some dedicated towards anyone with a disability.
Randi Lasher:
Whenever possible for students to get out and experience and practice that and also verify, yeah, this is a field I’m excited about or not, and then regroup and go into another way, into another path, that’s a really important part of the internships.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson.
Today we’re going to be talking about student preparedness from state services for the blind perspective. And with me in the studio today, we have Kate Larson, Randi Lasher and Shane DeSantis. So let’s start out with you, Kate. Why don’t you introduce yourself?
Kate Larson:
Hi, I’m Kate Larson. I’m a counselor and I work closely with all my colleagues here in supporting students in high school and those that navigate college and graduate school.
Randi Lasher:
And this is Randi Lasher. I’m one of our transition work opportunities navigators. I work in northern and central Minnesota primarily and help support students in high school and students early in their college endeavors, just supporting the work that they’re doing with their counselor and getting them prepared for life after high school.
Shane DeSantis:
Hello, everyone. My name is Shane DeSantis. I am the transition coordinator at state services from the blind. In my role, I help put together resources, activities, services for students across the entire state. And I have the pleasure of working with all of our staff to help support our students.
Jeff:
Well, great. I want to thank all of you for coming on here to help share your experience, your knowledge and your perspective on some of these topics we’ll be talking about. And that ranges from documentation, scholarships, internships, all which can and will help you navigate your educational journey. So Kate, why don’t you kick it off and we’ll start with documentation.
Kate:
Sure. So I think first, you know, as students start to navigate applying to colleges, there’s so many supports within your high school or your, you know, your school situation. And so utilizing all of those resources will be really useful and continuing to do so in your admission and acceptance process.
Working with SSB counselors and staff like Shane and Randi are going to be super helpful in involving SSB in that conversation as you decide to which school to attend. And so some relevant documents that you’ll be getting into place after accepting at a college are things like your FAFSA completing your federal aid application with you and your family is going to be a big step. You’re going to fill that out annually while you’re in college and typically it’s available each winter. Maybe January 2025 is when it became available for the following academic year. And so students right now, you know, we’re in March of 2025, they’re completing it right now so that they could use that for fall semester 2025. That’s a big deal and it takes a lot of work and it does involve your guardians when you’re considered part of your family’s dependence on their taxes.
So doing that is going to be huge. What that will then offer you is federal funds potentially, state funds and even funds from your school that you have chosen to attend. That’s a really big deal and it can offer you a ton of scholarships, grants, things that you don’t have to apply separately for. And so filling that out will be a crucial step. And then subsequently as you start to register for classes, getting your tuition and registration all sorted, that’s one thing your SSB staff will work with you on.
So getting your class schedule. Those are two key documents that you’ll need right away and your degree report. So as you meet with your college during orientation, you’ll register for classes and you’ll plan out what classes you need each semester in order to graduate. Sharing that with your SSB counselor will help make sure that all of your classes are working towards the plan that you’ve put into place. It’ll also give you a ton of confidence that each of these help orient you towards the steps in your graduation and your employment plan.
This all can feel pretty daunting early on in your process and that’s super normal, especially if you’re the first in your family to college. That’s why there’s staff at each of your colleges and universities that are here to help you, they might be called different things than what they were called in high school, like you probably had a guidance counselor or maybe you had a college advisor. You might now instead of having a teacher of the visually impaired and blind, you’re going to have an access consultant or a disability services staff member at your college or university.
All of these people are going to be here to help you get the documents you need and move forward with your plan as efficiently as you can.
Randi:
I don’t know if it’s worth noting that when you’re in your second or consequent semesters that we collect like grade reports for students.
Shane:
So when students are working with state services for the blind and have a employment goal that requires higher education, there’s that potential that SSB will become a little bit more involved in that higher education process and help students obtain that post-secondary education that they are set in place to obtain. And so when that is the case, SSB does have some requirements on the students and that we work very closely with every student on to ensure that those requirements are being met. And one requirement of that is obtaining necessary documentation each semester and each academic year that we need on our end to be able to help support that semester.
And so some of that Kate had already mentioned, a couple of additional pieces that may be required is your grades after every semester. When we’re helping students reach their college degree, we want to make sure that students are making adequate progress towards that degree in any timely manner.
So with that, we do ask for those grades every semester. And a lot of times that’s just a good check-in and students are doing good in their classes and we can kind of give them that hooray and like good job. Let’s plan for the next semester.
And sometimes it might call for additional conversations about how their academic semester went and how to plan for the next semester to help put themselves in the best spot to be successful in their higher education.
A couple of other examples of some documents that an SSB staff might ask for might be your housing situation and any housing documents that you are navigating each year. So sometimes students have transportation plans or fees associated for each semester. That’s another thing that students will get some documentation of whether that be a bus pass that they are purchasing for that semester or maybe it’s more regular transportation costs that they’ll have throughout the semester to get to and from their classes.
When individuals again, we’re supporting them in their higher academics and they have some of those transportation costs associated, that might be something that SSB or Counselor Staff will ask for documentation of.
Jeff:
Well, that’s great information. Something you want to say on top of. Now, another area is getting work experience, building your resume. We’re talking about internships.
So Randi, why don’t you kick it off?
Randi:
Yeah, that sounds great. So internships often are required for students in college, depending on the career or educational pathway that they’ve chosen. But even if an internship isn’t required as part of your educational requirements, it’s still a really great way to get experience in the field that you’re studying and kind of get you launched into whatever that career pathway is.
Working collaboratively both with SSB to identify potential internship sites as well as your professors and school support staff in your college is a great way to just see what opportunities are going to be available to you. And again, kind of hope that you would jump start into whatever that final career is that you want to land in, because an internship is essentially going to be a work experience, hopefully paid, not always paid, but that’s ideal when it is just an opportunity for you to get experience in that field. It really helps to set you up with a nice looking resume that’s leading you into that career path you’ve chosen.
Jeff:
I think that work experience is really good for the students because it gets them to work, transportation to work, everything involved with work, whether what field they’re in or anything, it’s still the processes get started and they get to experience that interacting with someone, accommodations, and all sorts of other types of things with internships. That’s great.
Shane:
You’re exactly right on that. And one thing that I want to add a little bit is sometimes, and in this was my case as a college student, my first real world work experience in the career path that I was set to embark on wasn’t until I was in college when I was in high school, I had some part time jobs that built my resume a little bit, but nothing was relevant to the field that I was interested in.
So it’s so important and impactful when students are pursuing an education path, a major to try and get some work experience, some field experience in that field, that’s really going to be that first work experience on a resume that’s going to pop when individuals are applying for jobs after college, because that’s going to show that students have that real life experience in the field that they’re entering that they can work off of and build and bring into their employer that they’re trying to get their first job at a college office.
Kate:
And the data bears that out. Employers across industry who hire college students want work experience, whenever possible, in internships and field experiences like Shane and Randi are saying, but they want not just great students, but they want people who have had that road tested, so to speak, they want to do the same things and can talk about it. And so whenever possible for students to get out and experience and practice that and also verify, yeah, this is a field I’m excited about or not, and then regroup and go into another way into another path, that’s a really important part of internships, practicums, field experiences, jobs during college, research.
Shane:
And that on the job learning is invaluable.
And a lot of times that starts at an internship or a practicum. I’m a true believer that for occupations that require higher education, that education you’re receiving college is going to help you in the workforce. Absolutely, it’s going to help you become prepared, qualified and confident to work in whatever role you’re seeking.
But I know for me, I learned so much more about my job and my career, the first year of actually working and doing internships and doing practicums versus that book smart that you get in the classroom. I think so many occupations out there that on the job training and that field experience being in the shoes of a worker, it works in tandem with that book smart and that education you’re receiving in the classroom and goes into that real world applicability that you can take and learn from and build your career skills off of
Jeff:
Great stuff. Now another area is, I mean, we talked about the FAFSA, but funding scholarships is very important. And there’s so many resources out there. So Shane, why don’t you get us started on scholarships?
Shane:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Jeff. So first off, whenever I’m talking with the student about scholarships, I want to go back to a little bit of what Kate talked about with that FAFSA and that application for financial aid. That is a first critical step of receiving scholarships or grants that will help fund for and pay for academics. Now, it’s going to look different for everyone, but actually if you’re receiving our services and we’re supporting in college education, we require every student to fill out that fast up. And like Kate said, we can help navigate that whole process.
It can be daunting, especially for that first time. And then there are so many scholarship opportunities out there. There’s some locally, there’s some nationally, there’s some specific to blindness and vision loss.
And there’s some dedicated towards anyone with a disability. So it’s important, I think, when you’re looking at to see what scholarships are available, consult with some of the experts out there who know about scholarships and can help point you in that direction of some good scholarships that might be applicable to you because they’re going to know your scenario and they’re going to help you navigate to one that could be really beneficial.
So one professional out there that can help you navigate some scholarship opportunities, if you’re in high school would be a school counselor connecting with your guidance office, because they’ve helped other students navigate transitioning from high school to college and they’ve helped others apply for scholarships. And so they might have a pulse on maybe some local scholarships in your immediate area or some state scholarships or national scholarships that could be a good fit for you.
Another key source of some good relevant scholarships to your area or your field of interest, maybe even would be your college that you’re either accepted into or you’re currently at. Their financial aid office is going to have resources to colleges and every college might be a little different on their scholarships.
They might offer some through that school and they might have an application. They might have multiple scholarships with multiple applications.
I know the college that I went to, they had a single application and their whole scholarship endowment was all through that single application. and their scholarship review committee linked applicants with various scholarships that that university had.
And so talking with the financial aid office on your campus or the campus that you’re going to and seeing what they have available for scholarships and what resources they have is pivotal to getting tapped into some of those that are very relevant at that institution.
Another I would like to say expert out there that you can consult with is state services for the blind. We do have a scholarship list on our website. If you go to our website and navigate to use services, there is an additional resources tab and under that’s the college preparedness section. And right now we have a list of scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year. I will say that most of these or if not all of these are dedicated for individuals who are blind or low vision or have a disability.
So we have a list of some local scholarships for blind individuals and then various national scholarships that are tailored towards individuals with disabilities or specifically with blindness or low vision. So talking with SSB, seeing if that list is up to date and taking a look through them is another good resource.
And then I do want to quickly touch on the internet. Now full disclosure or disclaimer here when you’re searching for a scholarship and you’re online looking at some, you do have to make sure that they are legit. There might be some out there that just sound too good to be true. And if that’s the case, they might be.
But there are a lot of websites on the internet that have a list of various scholarships all throughout the nation. A lot of scholarships might have criteria. So they may be for a certain population. They may be needs based. So you may have to show a financial need for a scholarship or some other requirement. So it’s important to look into those.
A couple of those websites that I have used and I feel confident sharing them.
Career One Stop is one of them. That’s a website slumped by the US Department of Labor and they have a scholarship bank with tens of thousands of scholarships. Now that’s daunting in itself. That’s so many scholarships, but you can weed through some of those and find those that do apply to you.
Maybe there’s some that are only for individuals who are interested in the STEM fields or interested in education. So when I say there’s so many out there, it does take some time to weed through which ones might be applicable to you. And that’s again, where working with state services for the blind, your counselor, maybe a work opportunity, navigator, Randi or our other coworkers who can help you weed through some of those scholarship opportunities that are out there so that you can apply for ones that you really have a good shot at because applying for a scholarship, it’s an investment.
It’s going to take some time for most of them. A good scholarship that’s again legit and not something fake and phony is probably going to require ASA, a letter of interest, maybe letters of recommendation so that that scholarship committee can make a good solid informed decision on who they choose for that scholarship based on relevant information about each student who applies. Again, SSB can be a pivotal reason to help you explore all of that.
Jeff:
That’s a lot of information. That’s good information. And you reminded me of something early on, something about the FAFSA that Kate talked about. And it reminded me about accessibility to the FAFSA when you’re going online. You might find out that a certain screen reader or a certain browser doesn’t work too well with it. So you might want to have some assistance to verify what you think is happening is happening on that. And even when you’re filling out these resumes or these applications, I think accuracy is important. So there too, you might want to have some system, some way of proofing before you submit.
Randi:
Yeah, that’s a great point, Jeff. One thing that I am actually doing right now with several students is helping to do some proofreading. As you mentioned, a lot of scholarships will require a personal statement or an essay of sorts. So I have been reviewing those for students. We can also at SSB help with addressing some of the accessibility issues that may exist with different scholarship applications.
Something we haven’t mentioned yet that I think is also important to know when you’re a senior in high school, we want to make sure that we’re getting students set up with one of our assistive technology specialists for an assessment so that they can get a sense of what are the tools, what are the softwares, what are the resources that are going to be helpful for them when they’re going into college and navigating through some of these things. So I think that resource that we offer, having assistive technology specialists on staff and being able to do those assessments for students is just a really huge piece with that as well.
The other thing with scholarships, I would say is as well as addressing accessibility issues, just knowing that SSB can help not just pair students to scholarships that are an appropriate fit for them and help keep track of deadlines and things like that, but even just going through and filling them out on behalf of students when necessary.
That’s something that I’m doing for students now as well. We work with each individual student to address like what their specific needs are and what level of support that they might need or want from us to make sure that they’re presenting their information in those scholarships in as professional and competitive a manner as possible so they have a really great shot at getting the scholarships they’re applying for.
Kate:
I think Randi made amazing points. The last thing I would add to that is like it is just really great practice to be in the habit of having someone read your essays. It’s not all the time that we’re writing professionally and promotionally about ourselves and so it’s really great practice to have people read this.
Often especially in the Midwest, we’re not great at singing our praises and so I think having trusted allies to your work who help you not only do the accessibility and the proofreading but also like I know that you are one of only two people from your program that got this scholarship or I know that you were selected for this competitive internship. Just someone who helps you amplify all of the great work that you’re doing.
All of us need that. It’s not like specific to our community. This is just good common practice as you get into these applications.
Jeff:
Kate, how important is it to stay in touch with your counselor during this process?
Kate:
Seeing your counselor as one of your five, ideally for young people entering college, they have about five adults in their life that they can go to when they have questions and they have concerns, they have worries. We’re one of those people and sometimes it’s I’m not sure if I’m going to pass my class. I’m not sure if my professor is going to make my test accessible to me. So it doesn’t have to be concerns. Ideally it’s not concerns but we’re here for all of that.
We’re here to meet periodically to make sure that you’re getting the things you need whether that’s financial support or technology but we’re also here to help you navigate this system during the smooth times and also celebrate.
I’m lucky to have a few people graduating this semester that I work closely with and it’s so good to have someone who can help you just pause and see how far you’ve come. I think ideally the counselor is someone that can really help connect you to resources, help you problem solve but also just help you reflect on all that you’ve accomplished.
Randi:
I think it’s really important too that students keep in touch with their counselor because in particular of course we don’t plan for this, we don’t hope for this but when a situation arises where things maybe aren’t going so well, you’re struggling in a class, maybe you’re not going to pass a class, if you’re communicating with us throughout that process and letting us know right at the beginning, hey I’m working with accessibility services, I’ve got these accommodations in place, what else can you help support me with? We’re going to be a lot more understanding and flexible and able to be a lot more understanding and flexible when we have that consistent communication versus if we don’t and I think that just makes for an overall more positive experience both for the student as well as the counselor just in kind of navigating that relationship but also navigating those challenges that might present themselves.
Again we don’t plan for that but I think that’s part of where that communication is really key. If you are starting to struggle or concerned with something, reaching out and saying something to your counselor just ensures that we can be there to kind of walk alongside you and get you additional supports or resources that maybe you don’t even realize could be available to you unless you ask the question so just wanted to kind of underscore that piece as well.
Jeff:
I heard the word navigation a few times and before we started talking Kate you mentioned navigating the campus. The University of Minnesota is a huge campus, it’s not up and down, it’s horizontal northeast and west. Have you heard from students about that?
Kate:
Sure, college is a huge transition literally in so many different ways and navigating orientation and mobility especially if students have orientation and mobility instruction during high school, it’s so great to be able to visit campus as part of your decision right and that can be a great time for SSB staff to meet on campus but we also can work with students as they make a decision and as they start a semester to do short-term orientation and mobility to orient them to where their classes are that semester, where transportation if they’re utilizing transportation to and from classes whether it’s shuttles through their college or metro mobility here in the Twin Cities we can help them connect to orientation and mobility staff who can do some lessons with them each semester.
Jeff:
Oh yeah, where’s the cafeteria right?
Kate:
Yeah and that’s such a good point. Walking through the residence hall dining facilities is a really smart one that often students might overlook.
Oh one thing we didn’t talk about, the disability services staff at each school will also help you get housing accommodations potentially so maybe you want to be in a part of campus that’s more proximal to where your classes are or maybe you’re a student that really having a bunch of other people that you have to share a bathroom with is going to be enormously stressful in just managing all of your personal care and this can be a housing accommodation and so talking through these needs with your SSB counselor and your college disability services will be a great way to look at what options are most appropriate for you.
Jeff:
Yeah you said one more thing but I think if we kept on going we’d probably come up with all sorts of different…
Kate:
yeah!
Jeff:
you mentioned transportation the shuttles…
Kate:
yeah.
Jeff:
it’s all doable and what’s really nice about it is you’re either in a trimester or a semester and then you get to relearn again another couple classes buildings now after your first year or so you start to put it all together that’s awesome. Well any closing remarks Shane?
Shane:
One last thing just want to share is the transition the college is a daunting one for everyone finishing high school and going off to college or starting their college journey at any time of their life so that’s where you know we understand that and we also understand that from the blindness and the vision loss perspective that adds another layer to that transition that we here at SSB want to make sure that students are equipped and ready to take on as much of that transition and be prepared for as much of it as they can knowing that they’re still going to be uncertainties.
There’s still going to be this big move sometimes it’s moving to a new city moving to a new environment sometimes if you’re moving to a campus living with new individuals it’s all a very big change we can’t stress enough that SSB can be one part of students’ resource network to assist and provide maybe some level of comfort or listening ear or someone to help navigate that transition because it is a big one.
Everyone going off to college is dealing with some new thoughts new anxieties maybe and so SSB is a resource the disability staff on that campus is a big resource and your network is a huge resource.
College isn’t only about studying and reading and learning there’s also a great social component to higher academics and to college and that’s another poor aspect of I think individuals enjoying and making the most out of their college journey is making some friends maybe attending a group or a committee getting out of that comfort zone a little bit when appropriate. Because that’s where some additional learning takes place and can really be such an uplifting experience for others to get out there and go do and learn something new outside of just the academics.
Jeff:
Well thank you I really want to thank you for taking the time to come on here Kate, Randi and Shane to share your perspective your knowledge on these important components of an educational journey I’m sure it’s going to help the listeners as they begin their journey so thank you very much.
Kate:
Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity
Randi:
Thanks Jeff
Shane:
Thanks Jeff.
Jeff:
Such a great opportunity to talk to Kate, Randi and Shane three professionals from different areas of State Services for the Blind to give us a perspective through their lens as they’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of students navigating their college journey and to share that knowledge with you as you begin your journey. Always a great time talking to the staff at State Services for the Blind.
To find out more about all the programs at State Services for the Blind, contact Shane.DeSantis@state.mn.us that’s Shane.DeSantis@state.mn.us.
Jeff:
Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your Vocf Rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed.
[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