Special services programs launch self-esteem, career skills, success in life

Being treated as an equal among peers is important to all of us, and can particularly challenging for students with special educational needs. Kids can be cruel, and school can be frustrating. Learning disabilities can heighten the turbulence of the high school years, when students are called upon to define their future paths.

Career & Tech’s courses for special needs students, or services programs as they are known, provide a safe place for individuals to learn, grow and mature while building marketable career and life skills. Services programs also can be a foundation for further Career & Tech education, with students progressing to a higher level program after mastering basic skills. Services-level programs include Automotive Services, Botanical Services, Building Maintenance, Building & Grounds Maintenance, Food Services, Health Services, Office Operations, and Vocational Training & Transition.

In Fall 2006, Ashley Matthews of Ballston Lake jumped at the chance to enroll in Health Services as a Shenendehowa sophomore so she could “follow in my grandmother’s footsteps. She was the most caring nurse you could be around, and I wanted to explore that career field,” Matthews related. Health Services teaches students basic skills for employment in the healthcare field at places including hospitals, nursing homes and extended care facilities. But Matthews didn’t stop there. The following school-year she moved up from the services level to Career & Tech’s Nurse Assistant program, earning excellent grades and ultimately passing the New York State examination to become a Certified Nursing Assistant, not an easy task for any student.

For her senior year, Matthews chose another profession to study at Career & Tech, Culinary Arts & Hospitality Technology. “My mom earned a culinary degree, and I want to learn to cook just like her,” she noted. Beyond achieving in the classroom, Matthews blossomed socially at Career & Tech. A student who “used to endure lots of teasing when I was younger” is now “getting revenge by being the best student I can be. On the outside, I was smiling,” Matthews recalled, “but inside I was hurting. I held it all inside and was really emotional until high school. I’ve done better since coming to Career & Tech.”

Not all special needs students are as focused or driven as Matthews. At the Cohoes City School District’s Page Avenue School, Rachel Berliner, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker from the Capital Region BOCES’ Special Education division, uses the prospect of attending Career & Tech “as a functional tool, an enticement for students whose outlook on life is not so bright and rosy. Many of these students’ self-images are pretty poor,” Berliner related, “and being able to go to Career & Tech can get them to stay in school and graduate.”

According to Berliner, Career & Tech Education can instill in such students a work ethic that might be lacking in homes where family members may not realize the full potential of special needs students. “Kids come out of Career & Tech programs with self-esteem, the ability to take direction and get along with others, real career skills and connections for employment,” she said. “They get jobs as cooks, with contractors, in offices or at auto service centers.”

Cheryl Allan of Delmar is one parent who did not doubt the potential of her son and former special needs student, Jonathan. Indeed, she wanted “the best education possible to provide him with every opportunity to succeed in life and become a giving member of society.”

Allan had to navigate a path of programs and services to match her son’s learning styles, abilities and interests. Their journey led them in 1998 to Career & Tech’s Vocational Training & Transition program, where Jonathan studied as an adult student under the New York State Vocational & Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) program. Allan credits the lessons her son learned at Career & Tech for much of his success today.

“Everything came together for Jonathan,” said Allan. “Vocational Training & Transition teacher Diana Bernard does a bang-up job with her students. They learn not only work skills, like preparing mailings and info packets, but life skills. Jonathan was well prepared for supportive employment.” Now 31, Allan is a cafeteria worker at the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, an avid bowler and baseball player.

The Vocational Training & Transition classroom includes a mailing center, bindery, campus store, copy center and campus courier service. Students also intern at local businesses including Crossgates Mall, Price Chopper, the Northeast Regional Food Bank and Peter Harris. “Self-confidence, interpersonal skills, independence, work experience and job training – all these are goals of our program,” said Bernard.

Schoharie High School class of 2007 graduate Joe Finch said he didn’t enjoy his high school years much, except for the time he spent in Bill Rouleau’s Building & Grounds Maintenance program at Career & Tech’s Schoharie campus. The best part of Finch’s experience there, he said, is something he uses every day: his dresser. “It was the first time I ever built furniture, and it was interesting how I made it. I put a lot of details into my dresser.”

Finch is now employed as an installer at McCarthy Tire in Cobleskill after a stint as a cashier at Price Chopper. He still speaks highly of his years at Schoharie Career & Tech, where he got to know several teachers and students very well. “There was nothing I didn’t like about [Career & Tech]. The kids there were good, and everyone was treated the same.”

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