Cornell employees help disabled high schoolers in T-S-T BOCES move from school to work

In a perfect world like Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, all the children are above average. Perhaps the line still gets laughs because we recognize in it the sometimes unrealistic expectations we have of our children. But those who are parents of the slowest learners live in a parallel universe with a different set of expectations. The ones whose children have severe learning disabilities as well as physical limitations, such as hearing loss, may pray only that their children will have normal lives when they grow up — lives where they'll be able to live independently and find useful work. For such children, the rough-hewn phrase "get a life" has real meaning because some don't manage it.

It's these at-risk young people that a Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) program is aimed at helping early on. The Career Exploration Program is run by Bill Woodams and serves BOCES students 16 to 21 years old from Tompkins, Seneca and Tioga counties. While the program has partners throughout the community, among its most effective supporters are a handful of Cornell employees.

Currently about 15 supervisors in Cornell University's departments of Grounds, Campus Life-Facilities and Cornell Dining voluntarily act as mentors to the young people during 10-week unpaid internships of an hour and a half a day throughout the school year. Every teen who graduates from the program completes at least four internships and assembles a portfolio, with the help of BOCES staff, that includes a log of the work he or she performed.

The notebooks also contain the students' résumés and supervisors' assessments of the young people, to give potential employers an idea of the work they can do. The evaluations are detailed — addressing such topics as reliability, judgment, quality and quantity of work, attendance, appearance and supervisors' personal impressions.

"We're trying to teach [the young people] work-related positive behaviors and attitudes resulting in positive consequences and show them they can make a difference in their lives," said Woodams. "Internships also help them find what they like to do and are good at."

"I liked being outdoors doing things," said Joe Laue of his favorite internship, with Ken Kahl, a lead man on North Campus with the grounds department. Kahl, who has been working with the BOCES program since 1990, said supervising young people like Joe is "tremendously rewarding. I'd like to see more departments open their doors [to the BOCES interns]."

Cornell owes it reputation as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the world to people like Kahl, who counts on his team and seasonal helpers and interns like Laue to get it ready for events like Commencement and Reunion. Typical spring jobs for interns in the grounds department are leaf clearing, mulch spreading and assisting with the planting of trees. And while the young people may occasionally require a little more direction than the average employee, it's well worth it, said Kahl. "Once they get it down, you have an extra two pair of hands for an hour and a half a day. That really helps." Plus, it gives him special satisfaction, Kahl said, "seeing [the interns] give it all they've got and take pride in their work."

Kahl and his work team often stay in touch with interns after they graduate from the BOCES program. "I've seen a lot of successes," he said. It's great to see them a couple of years later, he said, driving a new truck and working hard in paying jobs in the community.

Some end up working permanently at Cornell. Of this year's crop of BOCES Career Exploration graduates, three — Seth Bailey, Crystal Campolito and Ken Jones — have found employment with the university's food service division. And Mayann Kelly was offered a job at Jansen's Dining at Cornell after her internship in fall 1999. "May was an excellent intern, full of energy, and she wanted to learn," recalled Jill Shufelt, assistant manager at Jansen's.

Shufelt, who has been supervising BOCES Career Exploration interns in Cornell food service for four years, has set up a special program for them in which they get to work in all areas of food preparation, serving and cleanup. "It's good for them and good for the full-time employees to interact with young people and teach them what they know," she said.

Tammo Steenhuis, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and his wife, Aafke, have a daughter, Geneva, who has prospered in the program and hopes eventually to find a permanent job working with older people in the community. Aafke Steenhuis said that she and her husband raised Geneva with a strong work ethic, as they did with all their children, but that if it weren't for the BOCES Career Exploration Program she would have less of a chance at a normal life than her siblings.

"Cornell has been a good corporate citizen in sponsoring the internships and giving these young people an opportunity to flourish," said Susanne Bruyre, who directs the Program on Employment and Disability in Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and supports the "mainstreaming" of workers with disabilities.

For more information and to set up internships with the BOCES Career Exploration Program, contact Woodams at (607) 257-1551.

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