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Story by Karen D. Smith
karen.d.smith@amarillo.com
Photography by Steven Dearinger
steven.dearinger@amarillo.com
Anne Hubley turned the ruler over and over in her hands.
The inch side, not the centimeter side.
She wanted the inch side.
Tutor Megan Hardy patiently pointed to the proper edge.
Together, they held ruler to paper.
But Hubley concentrated so hard tracing and retracing a line that she never realized it extended much longer than the 3 inches assigned.
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| Drawing A Line: Anne Hubrey, left, practices using a ruler with help from West Texas A&M University education major Megan Hardy. Hubley is the newest student in Where The Learning Continues, a program for high school graduates with intellectual disabilities. |
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"This is hard," the 24-year-old sighed.
College, it's not.
But the program – called Where The Learning Continues – feels like college to Hubley and three other students with intellectual disabilities. Their formal education might have ended in high school, when they either graduated or "aged out" of the public school system at 22, but it didn't.
Set at West Texas A&M University, WTLC joins an estimated 100-200 postsecondary educational options now offered to students with intellectual disabilities, said Nancy Hurley of the University of Massachusetts Institute for Community Inclusion.
"The more I talk to people, the more I think we're just scratching the surface," Hurley said.
UMass ICI has a federal grant to count programs and share information about them through its ThinkCollege Web site,www.thinkcollege.net.
The survey effort has identified three categories of college-based programs for the developmentally disabled: students who attend regular classes with modifications to help them; students who attend separate, lower-level courses unavailable to the general student population; and a mix of the two.
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| Buffaloes Of Differing Varieties:Jacob Cooper, 23, got involved immediately in campus activities at West Texas A&M University by joining the Herdsmen, who are responsible for tending the university's live mascot. Cooper was photographed Jan. 21 feeding, Sadie, now retired. |
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Amarillo College offers hybrid opportunities. Students with intellectual disabilities might have difficulty taking regular courses, but they can take Continuing Education courses that are not graded or work on skills at their own pace in the ACcess Learning Lab, said Brenda Wilkes, coordinator of disability services.
WTLC, a joint effort of WT and the nonprofit Hali Project, offers separate instruction for participants, but most enrollees have become involved in campus life.
Blake Bagwell helps the WT football coaching staff. Kati Artho works part time in the campus Admissions Office. Jacob Cooper joined the WT Herdsmen, college guys who wrangle the university's buffalo mascot.
"I've been so thankful to the Herdsmen, because they've really embraced him," said Cooper's mom, Carol.
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Jacob Cooper was the lone student when WT and the nonprofit Hali Project launched WTLC as a pilot program in 2002.
WT provides space and administrative oversight. The Hali Project pays coordinator Jeane Miller, added in September, and mentors, who are mostly WT education majors, said Dr. Henry Moreland, Continuing Education director.
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| An individual is considered to have an intellectual disability if his IQ is below 70-75; he has significant limitations in two or more adaptive skills, such as communication or self-care; and the condition manifests itself before the age of 18.
American Association on Mental Retardation
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Each WTLC student pays tuition to WT to cover access to facilities and privileges, Moreland said. Spring semester tuition was $1,060.
Because it's cost-intensive, with one-to-one teaching work, WTLC "will probably always have a size limitation," Moreland said.
Training focuses on increasing students' job opportunities by improving reading, math, writing, money-handling and social skills, Miller said.
Class mornings appear a riot of activity, with mentors alongside students as they use rulers, count pencils and pennies to visualize math problems, read newspaper articles aloud, learn to fill out job applications, or tackle other tasks.
"We're working on life skills," Miller said. "I think it has expanded their horizons."
Parents agree.
"We didn't feel like he was finished learning," Bobby Cooper said of his son.
"I feel like I've made a lot of progress," Jacob Cooper, 23, said. "I read better. I can use a computer now."
Many things the students will learn simply by being around other people their age, Hurley said.
"They're going to get certain skills they would never be exposed to in the special ed classroom," she said, "like using cell phones. That's a huge skill for them.
"Keeping a schedule, that's another one. At (public) school, it's all bells. There's no need to look at your watch."
Though the 21-year-old Artho already had been working part time on campus, her mother still worried WTLC might overwhelm her.
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| On The Same Page: Blake Bagwell, 22, left, reads aloud from the West Texas A&M University newspaper, "The Prairie," while Where The Learning Continues Coordinator Jeane Miller, center, and Bagwell's WTLC classmate, Kati Artho, 21, follow along. |
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"Would she get to her parking place OK? Would she be where she needed to be on time? Would she have her ID with her?" said Sammie Artho, assistant director of WT's Student Advising, Registration and Retention Center. "I kept waiting for her to come by my office. She never did. She didn't need me.
"The more she can read, communicate, follow instructions, get where she needs to be, the better she's going to be."
Bagwell, 22, has exhibited the same expanded independent streak, his mother said.
"He has just matured," Jo Tyler Bagwell said. "He's been exposed to seeing people do for themselves, making decisions. This experience is helping him learn his own abilities."
Hubley's mother, Kelly Baker, could not emphasize enough the value her daughter receives.
"She's always happy and outgoing, but it's like this has given her a sense of purpose," Baker said. "She's practicing her reading every night and is real serious about it.
"And having somewhere to go every day is wonderful."
Baker believes the community will benefit, as well.
"These kids will mature through the program," she said. "They'll rise to a higher level of function and they'll be able to contribute, whether working or just in their everyday lives.
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