Camera Ready

 Day 7 of the 31 for 21Challenge

When Zoe arrived on campus in 2010, I thought, “Oh, oh. This young man is going to be a challenge for me.”

He didn’t look me in the eye, he was uncomfortable talking to me, and whenever I pulled out the camera, he had a way of turning and tucking his body so he almost disappeared into the person standing next to him.

Getting a good photo of him became my personal challenge. His mom and dad were following Shepherds College on Facebook, they missed their son, and they wanted to see pictures!

The first few weeks were difficult. I had a lot of photos of the side of his head and left shoulder, or of the palm of his hand, but nothing to show his parents that he was actually doing very well while he was away at school.

Then things started to change.

I first noticed it when we had a professional photographer on campus. Zoe chatted with the assistant. In group shots, Zoe still turned his body, but he smiled like he was having fun.  

After a while, when a camera came out, Zoe stopped trying to make himself invisible - he lingered.  He was becoming a noticeable presence on campus.

Zoe was growing in confidence and, with that growth, came signs of initiative.

Today, Zoe is a third-year Culinary Arts student. His mom, Kim Anderson, who now works for Shepherds College, shared this with me about the progress she’s noticed in her son.

“During Zoe’s time at Shepherds College, he’s developed an independent spirit. He knows who he is, what he wants and what he believes. He can now stand up for himself.

Three years ago, I couldn’t have left Zoe home alone if my husband and I needed to go away. Zoe now stays home on his own and is very sure of himself. He even taught himself how to ride the city buses in Milwaukee.

Zoe would like to live independently someday. He took the initiative to look for a Culinary Arts position online, hoping to find a job after he graduates. He also has visited the public library website to learn a foreign language - Spanish – again, all on his own.

My husband and I believe so much in what Shepherds College is doing. I feel blessed to be a part of it.”

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.

Kelsie's Internship

Today's blog is written by Kelsie Mead, Culinary Arts student at Shepherds College:

Hi, I’m Kelsie Mead.  I’m a third-year student at Shepherds College.  On Fridays, I attend academic and Bible classes from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and on Mondays through Thursdays I work at my internship at Oakridge Care Center.  My shift begins at 6:40 a.m. and ends at 2:00 p.m.   Follow me as I walk you through a typical day at Oakridge Care Center…. 

When I arrive, I make sure the coffee is in the coffee carafe and place carafes on a cart.  I take the coffee to the north/south dining room and serve coffee and cereal for the residents.   After breakfast, I wash the serving utensils using a commercial dishwasher.  Next, I announce over the intercom that breakfast is now being served in the main dining room.  I proceed to the compartment sink where I wash pots and pans.  After breakfast is completed in the main dining room, I set-up carts to pick-up the dishes from tables and wash the tables.  My final task with breakfast is to take out the trash. 

Once breakfast is completed, it’s time to prepare for lunch.  My responsibilities vary from day to day.  Sometimes I prepare a dessert.  I find the recipe, get the ingredients, mix ingredients together, and bake or put into the refrigerator.  Recently I made peach cobbler.  The residents enjoyed it.  When I don’t prepare a dessert, I clean out the refrigerators, scrub trash cans, organize pots and pans, etc. 

For lunch, I serve coffee and the side dish in the north/south dining room.  Side dishes include: salads, jello, fruits, and desserts.   Then, I wash the serving utensils using a commercial dishwasher.   Next, I announce over the intercom that lunch is now being served in the main dining room.  I proceed to the compartment sink where I wash pots and pans.  While lunch is served in the main dining room, if something is needed I get it for them.  Finally, I set-up the carts for dining room clean-up but I don’t clean the dining room instead I wash the pots and pans. 

I am thankful that I was hired for this internship and I enjoy working with my co-workers because they understand my vision problem.  Due to my vision, I sometimes have to wash dishes more than once.  Diligence means to invest my time and energy to complete each task assigned to me.  I practice diligence when I wash dishes.  The definition of initiative is doing a task before I’m told to do it.  I take initiative with my cleaning tasks by looking at the cleaning list and completing chores without being asked. 





Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.

Shepherds College Character Trait #3: Initiative

Definition of Initiative: readiness and ability in initiating action; enterprise

Out of the six character traits the college emphasizes, initiative is the one that makes colorful balloons, whirling confetti and loud cheers go off inside my head. I have this reaction for two reasons:

1.       I’ve been placed in positions of management since I’ve been a teenager. There are qualities in your employees that you learn to prize more than others, and initiative is one of them. An employee that recognizes what needs to be done, and then does it without waiting to be asked, makes their time, their boss, their co-workers and their company so much more productive. It’s an invaluable trait to bring into an organization.

2.      I’m a mother of a teenager, and as any mother of a typical, garden-variety type teenager knows, initiative is hard to come by.  I know my daughter understands that a household needs certain things accomplished in order to function on a daily basis.   Clean dishes are a handy thing to have when dinnertime rolls around, clean laundry is mandatory for attending school, stuff like that. When I walk through the door after a long day of work and I see a sink filled with dirty dishes that she created from her endless after-school snacking, it’s common to hear me ask, “Couldn’t you have done the dishes?” to which she replies, “No one asked me to.” Or better yet, “I didn’t know I needed to.”  Huh.  I would fire her, but I think that’s actually what she wants.

At Shepherds College, we know that initiative is important for the students to learn, not only for job performance, but for daily living as an independent young adult. When one of our graduates moves out on her own, she needs to recognize when her food or supplies are getting low and do something about it. 

She needs to be aware when her work clothes are no longer clean and take the appropriate action to remedy the situation. Her parents aren’t going to be there to do these tasks for her. She needs to recognize that a task needs to be done, and then do it without being told. 

Here are several ways we accomplish this goal at Shepherds College:

Mr. Gaschke encourages initiative in the residential areas by putting the students in a position of responsibility regarding cleaning supplies and paper products.  When supplies are getting low, it’s up to the students to notify him of the need to restock.  He also expects the students to take the initiative to discuss make-up work with him if they miss school.

Mrs. Konopasek creates initiative scenarios for the students to role play in Personal Development 2. She’s also been known to purposely mess up her classroom to see if the students demonstrate initiative in straightening it up!  Heads up students!

Miss Pollard asked her third-year students to find a need in the community and meet it. The students took the initiative to look through the newspapers, find needs that were mentioned and plan service projects to help meet the needs. The students will be volunteering at animal shelters, planning a fun day for the girls at the Agape House and assisting with yard work, also at the Agape House.

Our students working with a girl from the Agape House.

Initiative is one very important key to our students’ success in school and in their pursuit of an independent living. At Shepherds College, we teach them to set goals and follow through with them on their own, to recognize needs and meet them without being told.

We have no doubt they can do it. Believing in their abilities, even when others don't, will give them the confidence to take initiative and succeed in their jobs, in their homes, and in any area of their appropriately independent lives.

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.

A College with Character

Back in 2009, Shepherds College had just completed its first year. We had only a handful of students, but we could already see the potential in the program.

The leadership was dynamic, hands-on and visionary.

The teachers were warm, energetic and creative.

The curriculum was simplified, yet groundbreaking.

The program was comprehensive, life-changing and one-of-a-kind.

We all knew it could be successful in bringing hope for a brighter future to students with intellectual disabilities.  But, how would we reach the prospective students, where were they, what were they like, and what would the students be like after completing three years of our program?

This was the stuff of marketing, so in 2009 we brought in professionals who helped us develop a plan to reach young adults with intellectual disabilities who wanted an advanced education - people who needed to hear that there was a new post-secondary option available to them.

The marketing company gave us a lot of good information and a solid plan for moving forward with college recruitment, but the one area they couldn’t help us with – the one area we needed to work out on our own – was “values.” What values would underpin the whole college program? What values would resonate with all individuals? What values would we teach to the students to impact their future relationships, influence their decisions as independent adults and equip them to excel in their internships and future careers?

After many marketing and faculty meetings, we decided on six values – or character traits - that we hoped to instill in the students by the time they graduated:

Diligence – Investing their time and energy to complete each task assigned to them

Discernment – Perceiving the difference between right and wrong

Initiative – Recognizing and doing what needs to be done before they are asked to do it

Integrity – Knowing and doing what is right all the time

Respect – Recognizing and showing value to God, authority, others, property, and themselves

Responsibility – Knowing and doing what is expected of them

The students would hear about and learn these character traits in a variety of ways every day in their classes. The Residential Life training would support the development of these character traits in the students’ living areas. The faculty and staff would exemplify these character traits in their own lives so students could see them as role models for the values of the college.

And what company wouldn’t want an employee who exhibited these traits in the workplace? 

They are a cornerstone for the success of our program, and they provide a solid path for the students’ journey toward Appropriate Independence.

Watch this blog in the coming weeks. I hope to give you an idea of what teaching each character trait looks like in different classes, in Res Life, and in the activity of the students.

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

                                                                                                        Unknown

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.