MANSFIELD — Evan Williams has started asking his mother about what will happen after he graduates high school.
Can he get his own apartment? Drive his own car?
These conversations may seem unremarkable coming from most teens.
But for Evan, who has autism spectrum disorder, they’re the result of a newfound confidence.
His mother Melinda said a new program at Madison Comprehensive High School is helping Evan broaden his horizons.
Williams is one of 11 students enrolled in Madison RISE, a career tech program at Madison Comprehensive High School that serves students with disabilities.
“I’ve seen him really blossom and trying new things,” she said. “They cook, they work on detailing cars, all kinds of different things to see what he’s good at and what he enjoys.”
While traditional career-tech programs focus on a specific industry like medical assisting or automotive repair, the RISE (Real Independent Skills for Employment) program helps students develop a wider variety of job and life skills.
“We felt that there was a need for our students that have special needs to have the skills they need to live independently. So we created this program,” said Karen VonStein, the program’s lead instructor.
Jacob Grove, Madison’s career technical director, said nearly 70 percent of juniors and seniors at the high school are enrolled in a career-tech program.
But before the RISE program, there were limited career-tech opportunities for students with low-incident disabilities — those with significant cognitive impairments or who need highly specialized support.
“Our students with low-incident disabilities that needed some career-tech education and exposure, career awareness skills, building those things — we didn’t have anything that was available for them,” Grove said.
“If students wanted that option, we would have to send those students to Pioneer (Career and Technical Center) because we wouldn’t have an equitable program for them to go into.”
That changed with the launch of the RISE program last year.
“It’s so rewarding to me to see our students having an experience and getting integrated, having the confidence that they can work and they can be a part of something,” Grove said.
People with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be unemployed, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Programs like RISE aim to address that issue.
“(A student’s disability) doesn’t mean they can’t work. It doesn’t mean they can’t learn skills. It doesn’t mean they can’t be integrated into the workforce or anything in education,” Grove said. “It just means that there might need to be a little more guidance.”
Students learn to cook, work and manage money
Madison’s RISE program serves juniors, seniors and students who have deferred graduation. (In Ohio, students with an individualized education plan can continue attending school and receiving special education services until they turn 22 years old.)
At the high school, students practice independent living tasks like cooking, cleaning and doing laundry.
Every Friday, they make whatever they want for breakfast in the school kitchen. During a recent chili cook off, they worked as VonStein’s sous chefs, chopping veggies and browning meat.
Money management lessons include trips to the grocery store, where students shop with a premade list and a budget.
“(A student’s disability) doesn’t mean they can’t work … It just means that there might need to be a little more guidance.”
Jacob grove, Career Tech director at Madison Comprehensive High School
VonStein and her students have also created résumés and practiced filling out job applications.
They clean the school teacher’s lounge and library. They wash buses. They travel to AK Hair Collective in downtown Mansfield each week for an internship. The students there wipe down counters, dust the shelves, sweep the floors and wash the windows.
“It’s honestly a great opportunity on both sides. It’s worked for them to give them job experience, and it’s worked for us because they do such an amazing job cleaning the salon,” said Andrew Kleiman, AK Hair Collective owner.
Colleen O’Neill, a one-on-one aide, said the student she works with has grown exponentially as a result of RISE.
“He has trouble with his hands, so some things are a little harder for him. But we just worked around that and do it a different way,” she said.
O’Neill said visiting the salon a few times a week helps students not just with job skills, but social skills.
“At school, a lot of times when we clean and there’s nobody in the room. There’s nobody in the library. There’s nobody in the teachers’ lounge because we try and clean around the teachers having lunch,” she said.
“(At the salon), these are customers and you have to be quiet and do your job.”
While O’Neill and her student dusted a shelf of shampoo and conditioner, VonStein gently redirected a student who had set down his broom and plopped onto a nearby stool.
He let out a soft groan and stared at the salon floor.
“What’s the matter, buddy? Are you not in the mood to help today?” VonStein asked, her voice gentle with a subtle Southern accent.
The boy didn’t respond.
“We have to go get a haircut this afternoon, so you have to work right now, OK?” she said. “Then we’ll have breakfast when we go back to school, OK? You can make a pizza when we go back. But you have to help Mrs. Stegall right now.”
Without looking up, the boy stood and nonchalantly returned to his task.
“Thank you,” VonStein said as he walked away. “I appreciate you.”
‘It’s a real blessing to have this program right here at our school’
Grove said having the right instructor is crucial to the success of a program like RISE.
Being familiar with state standards and individualized education plans is just the beginning. Instructors need to build relationships with students, their families and partners in the community.
Since RISE is a state-recognized career-technical program, the school gets some additional funding from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to offset the costs. But VonStein has also sought donations from area businesses to cover the cost of supplies.
She’s also responsible for the connection between the program and AK Hair Collective. She hopes to build more business partnerships in the future.
“I come to AK to have my hair done, so I always talk to (the stylists) about an opportunity for an internship for our students to get real life community involvement,” she said.
“Once word gets out that we have our students and that they are available with a job coach to be able to go out and work, we’re hoping that we can get them a job where they can be earning real money and they could have us to support them.”
Williams described the work of VonStein and the RISE aides as a labor of love.
“I know Karen and all the teachers spend so much time and their own money just to make sure the kids are okay,” she said. “Being a special needs parent it takes a lot. It’s been a real blessing to have (this program) right here in our school.”
VonStein is the first to admit the work hasn’t always been easy. But when she talked about the impact, she was blinking away tears.
“When you first start out, it’s overwhelming at first. But the reward — seeing the skills, seeing the change, the confidence — it’s great,” she said.
“I have students that come out of their shell when they’re here. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why we became educators is to make a difference in the lives of our kids and we do that every single day.”
