Podcast Summary:
In this episode of Blind Abilities, Jeff Thompson welcomes Sarina Boley, a Vocational Rehabilitation Technician at State Services for the Blind, to share her journey into the world of Vocational Rehabilitation and Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS). Sarina explains how VR Technicians support counselors behind the scenes while helping students prepare for employment, college, and independent adulthood. She reflects on her immersive Adjustment to Blindness Training, discovering a new appreciation for Braille, assistive technology, orientation and mobility, and the many services available to blind and low vision Minnesotans. Sarina also discusses her educational path, her goal of becoming a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, and the value of learning while working directly with students. Whether you’re a student exploring future careers, a teacher of the blind, or a rehabilitation professional, this conversation offers an inspiring look at the people, training, and dedication that help open doors to independence, employment, and lifelong success.
Full Transcript
Sarina: I know I’d always be more than down to talk to anybody about a career in VR because I, you know, obviously I might be biased, but I think it’s a pretty cool thing.
It was very student led and directed. And so seeing that level of engagement from all of them and their willingness to, you know, be vulnerable and ask questions about transitioning to adulthood was really, really awesome to experience with them.
Jeff: Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson. Today in the studio we have Sarina Boley, and she’s a VR Tech at State Services for the blind. And she’ll explain what that role is, what her educational journey has been, and what her goals are for the future. So Sarina, welcome to Blind Abilities.
Sarina: Thank you so much for having me, Jeff. Excited to be here.
Jeff: Well, I’m so glad you could make it because actually, we haven’t had a lot of VR Techs interviewed on blind abilities. So this is going to be exciting. I want you to give us a little bit about what is a VR Tech?
Sarina: Yeah, I am definitely still new to the role, so I’m still learning about it every day myself from, you know, everything that I’ve been able to learn so far. The VR Technician role really supports the vocational rehab counselors at SSB by really kind of doing that administrative work of procuring services for our customers. A lot of that, like financial management, authorizing services, reconciling invoices, all of that fun stuff. And I am specifically on the Pre-ETS or Pre-Employment Transition Services team. So I’m going to be working with counselors who serve students, both high school students and also post-secondary students. So I am really excited about that aspect of it too.
Jeff: And how’s it going so far? I’m going to put you on the spot.
Sarina: Oh my gosh.
Jeff: Do you like SSB?
Sarina: Yeah, I really like it. I am really, really enjoying the role. A lot of what I’ve done up until this point has been very like training intensive. And I actually just last week was my final week of actually attending some ATB or Adjustment to Blindness Training myself. So I spent a week in Duluth with the lighthouse, and then I spent a week attending classes at Vision Loss Resources or VLR out in Little Canada. So definitely want to give a shout out to all of the staff at both of those places. They were both such incredible experiences. Yeah. So now I’m sort of getting into the nitty gritty of the VR Tech role, and I’ve got amazing mentorship and a great team, so it’s been really awesome.
Jeff: Can you explain to the listeners a little bit about the ATB? Why did you go to that and what does that do for you in your position?
Sarina: Yeah, definitely. Certain roles at SSB will attend ATB training for kind of like differing amounts of time depending on the role. So mine was two weeks. It is really to give these new SSB staff an understanding, like a really a more like immersive understanding of the services that are available to blind and low vision individuals. I think for me, what I really took away too is like this direct interaction with these kinds of things that I will be authorizing and supporting customers in obtaining. Especially, I am sighted, and so a lot of these services are very unique to blind individuals and really help me get an awareness. As an example, you know why somebody might want to order an Ambutech cane when they can get an NFB cane for free. And just sort of the different uses of all of these different services, technology, equipment, all of that. It really also just expanded my understanding of blindness and the experience of blindness. I did spend some time as well, like under occlusion or being blindfolded and trying out a lot of these services too, like orientation and mobility, assistive technology, Braille techniques of daily living, all of that stuff. It was really wonderful. Everyone was so awesome. I am just so grateful, honestly, that I’m at a place, you know, with SSB where they like paid for me to do that and have that experience that I’ll definitely like take with me for the rest of my life.
Jeff: Yeah, that’s so important. That immersive part of it to be able to draw upon that as you’re making decisions and choices for customers in the future. That’s awesome.
Sarina: Definitely.
Jeff: But when you put on the sleep shades. It was just you.
Sarina: I know. It was a completely new experience for me. The Sleep shades were honestly really helpful because, you know, there were times where I could be like, oh, you know, you could just, like, close your eyes, but you still want to rely on your vision and just like peek your eyes open or whatever. I think I just felt really, really supported in both of the programs. I felt like I was really encouraged to just learn and experience everything with the other students and just like, learn from them by, you know, talking to them and just listening to their training and the things that they enjoyed and the things that they struggled with and the programs that they used. And I think that that’s really huge, I mean, I don’t know, I’ve like I’ve told anybody who will listen to me about this, but I learned that I really love Braille.
Jeff: Really?
Sarina: Yes. Like, I love taking the Braille classes, you know, and components of the ATB training. And the way that I’ve thought about it, I was like, this is so interesting to me. And this is so like enjoyable, but it’s also kind of like hurting my brain in like the best way possible to me. And when I really kind of thought about it and broke it down, it’s really basic, but it is just learning how to read all over again.
Jeff: And not too many people get to rediscover the alphabet.
Sarina: Exactly! I was like, I’m learning the alphabet again.
Jeff: It’s like a code.
Sarina: Yeah.
Jeff: a secret code. And you’re cracking it. And then once you get into it, it’s like, oh, okay, I get it.
Sarina: Yep.
Jeff: Sarina, can you tell us what got you interested in pursuing a career in vocational rehabilitation?
Sarina: That is such a good question because I’ve talked with other people who are in this field too, and it can kind of feel like this almost like a secret kind of field. It feels like not enough people know about it, but I actually was introduced first to Voc Rehab when I was living in Madison, Wisconsin. I worked as a job coach. It just sort of so happened that the site that I was job coaching at was a Project Search site, which is like a transition program for young adults aged 18 to 21. And it’s kind of this mix of both education and on the job training. There were some interns there who were with UW Madison’s rehabilitation counseling program. And I remember like kind of listening to them talk about the program and their work. And I was like, that actually kind of sounds really interesting, but it still took me a little bit of time to actually get there myself. I just really loved working with students, so I kind of interpreted that to be like, I should be a special education teacher. Then I tried. That was not a good fit for me. And that’s when I saw a position open up as a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist with the state of Wisconsin’s Division of Vocational Rehab or DVR. So I applied to that and I got it. And I really, really loved it. And then I was there for a little over a year. And then about a year ago, just due to like life circumstances of my own, I ended up moving back to the twin Cities. I’m originally from here and took me a little bit of time to find an opening with the State, but then I saw the VR Tech position with SSB, and it was like specifically working with students. And I was like, well, that sounds pretty perfect. So I want to keep on keeping on.
Jeff: And part of keeping on, keeping on, you’re still going to school, but can you tell us a little bit more in depth about your college journey?
Sarina: Yeah for sure. I’m originally from the Twin Cities, and then I went to UW Madison for my undergrad. I feel like I kind of have a little bit of an atypical educational path leading to where I’m at now. I majored in English, and then I took an educational policy class. I really identified with that and just found it so interesting and such an interesting lens to examine and understand both the world, but especially the US, because I personally feel like education is just a foundation of so many things that we see in our society. I served with AmeriCorps over a summer and there were some students at the school that I was serving at with just like summer programming stuff. There were some students with disabilities, and I’d never really worked with people with disabilities before, but I just found myself really interested in working with them to access the same summer programming as the rest of the kids there. And so I think that that really, I was like, oh, I actually really like this. I like thinking creatively in that way of imagining accessibility and creating accessibility. And so that led me to get a minor in disability rights and services, which was really, really cool. And let me take some, you know, more like psychology and human services related classes. Yeah. Ended up undergrad with a Bachelor of Arts in English and education policy and then getting a minor or UW Madison calls them certificates. So certificate in disability Rights and services.
Jeff: with distinction.
Sarina: Yeah. You know I’ve always I feel like I’ve always been a little bit of a try hard maybe. Yeah. And now I’m pursuing my master’s in rehabilitation counseling at UW Stout. UW Madison also has a rehab counseling program, which is like I interacted with some of the interns at Project Search who were in Madison’s program, but I ended up choosing Stout because their program is fully online and asynchronous, so I can work while I’m doing it, which is really nice.
Jeff: And what a better way than to work as a VR Tech. When your goal is to become a VR counselor, you’ll know how a VR Tech can best support a counselor.
Jeff: That’s great for you and SBE. Really?
Sarina: Yeah! Yeah I agree. I hope I can be great for SSB. Um, I think to the experience of the technician role, the VR Tech role is going to just be really awesome experience for me to have. You know, when I do start working as a counselor, it’ll be really great, I think to have a really comprehensive understanding of more of like the back end things going on and the processes for authorizing services, just kind of all the required steps for all of these different things. Yeah. Like you kind of mentioned, right? Like the ideas of what are the best ways to support counselors? Where do I kind of feel like more support is needed? And also getting the experience to work with various counselors. You know, everyone has such a different, um, can have such a different approach to the work that they do. And so supporting multiple counselors and getting to see different ways of doing the work, I think will also be super informative for me. Once I start as a counselor myself.
Jeff: I typically hear people graduating and then they want to get experience and it seems like you’re doing it all at once. You got the job placement. That’s SSP has a job placement type of thing. Job searching, I believe you said. And then now you’re doing the VR tech stuff and you worked at Wisconsin stuff and you’re still growing and still aiming for your goals. So I think it’s a great fit at SSB. I think they have everything. I’m glad you came back to the Twin Cities to get this opportunity.
Sarina: Yeah, me too. It has been really, really wonderful so far.
Jeff: What advice do you have for listeners who may be considering Vocational Rehabilitation as a career?
Sarina: Oh, that’s a good question. Like I said about, it can sometimes feel like VR is almost this hidden, you know, secret field, I would say, you know, VR. I really would love to see maybe do a little bit of a better job advertising ourselves. Because also when I tell people what I do, they’re like, that is the most niche thing I’ve ever heard. So there’s definitely some things that I think in VR we could do to garner more interest and honestly, just awareness for listeners who are interested or considering a VR career, I would say honestly, like, like reach out to somebody at an office. I know that they’re like Career Force offices that collaborate with VRS, if that’s more your speed. But also I feel like people at SSB are really, really open as well to talking with folks and providing more information. And so I think that that would be a really good step. I know I’d always be more than down to talk to anybody about a career in VR because I, you know, obviously I might be biased, but I think it’s a pretty cool thing and would love to see more people be aware of it and get into it now.
Jeff: I think that’s great. Has anything at SSB surprised you or made you cock your head a little bit and go, huh? Like in surprise or this is neat or exciting.
Sarina: Oh my gosh. I would say like most things have honestly at SSB there really is just so much. I think learning just how expansive SSB is, even when I was interviewing and, you know, applying for this position, I was kind of, I think unfamiliar with like the, the sort of scope and the breadth of services and resources that SSB has. You know, I’m specifically thinking also about the Senior Services Unit. And those services for seniors are really, really awesome. And obviously the Communication Center is huge. And that’s kind of what comes to my mind. And just all of these really awesome resources, especially coming from like Wisconsin’s DVR, right? Like those services have a lot of breadth to them too. But I think because SSB like serves more than just the workforce almost, or has the ability to serve more than just the workforce, it feels like the things that they can offer to, you know, the people, the customers that all be directly working with are very expansive, which is really cool to experience. Yeah. I think that it, it is really impressive to me. And I would say everything has been really surprising because I also kind of came into this role not having a ton of experience working directly with services for folks who are blind and low vision. I had some familiarity. So really just seeing all of it in action has been really, really game changing for me, I think.
Jeff: I believe you attended the Summer Transition Program, the program that goes on every summer, and they get to visit SSB, and you were there. What was that like?
Sarina: Yeah, it was really cool to get to observe these students really just like taking initiative like so much of it, you know, at least the part that I was there for because, you know, it’s a long program and I was just there for their time at SSB. It was very like student led and directed. And so seeing that level of engagement from all of them and just their collaboration with each other and their willingness to, you know, be vulnerable and ask questions about transitioning to adulthood was really, really awesome to experience with them.
Jeff: Mhm. Well, with the ATB training, just coming out of that and then all of a sudden seeing some action firsthand at SSB with STP students going there for that day. You’re getting a full schedule of immersion and experience.
Sarina: Definitely. It has been really awesome. And I love the variability. I think that’s, you know, part of why I love working with students because you’re never getting the same thing every day.
Jeff: Mhm.
Sarina: And it’s been really, really fun for me. Yeah. I feel like I just learn really quickly that way because it’s always keeping me on my toes.
Jeff: Well, it sounds really great that you’re pursuing a role, a job, a career that you got interested in, and you’re doing all the stuff to just do it. You’re doing it all at once too. And it’s just really neat to see that the customers at SSB, especially the Pre-ETS right now, will be getting someone that is so dedicated to their job and wants to do better and do better for them, too. So there’s going to be great opportunities coming their way.
Sarina: Yeah, I hope so. I’m going to do my absolute best. Yeah.
Jeff: Well, thank you, Sarina, for coming on to Blind Abilities and showing what’s going on right now with your career.
Sarina: Thank you so much for having me, Jeff. It’s been great talking to you.
Jeff: All right.
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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.
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.
[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.