Rachel

 

Bridget Brown’s Blog Dec. 2022

 

 

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are looking forward to celebrating the winter holidays.  This is always a fun time of year but definitely cold.  Keep warm and safe!

 

I just finished my classes at UIC and it is good to take a break.

I start up in early January and I will be on the east and west side of campus so it might take me a little time to learn how to get around.

 

I am so excited to write to you about two great friends of mine. Ashley and Rachel. You are in for a treat to learn more about them because they are both incredible people. I have known these women for most of my life. Both of them are wonderful self-advocates and they are celebrating the 1-year anniversary of living together.

 

Rachel ~

I met Rachel when I was two weeks old and we have been friends ever since.

Rachel loves to have fun and plan activities with friends.

She has 3 great jobs. She has worked at Lou Malanites for 10 years. She recently started working at Gia Mia.

She also works at the same school she attended when she was younger. She helps the 2^nd-grade children and reads to them.
She love going to the awesome life academy when she is not working. Some of her superpowers are:

 

·       she remembers how to do jobs.  She starts out with a list of activities she needs to do but quickly just remembers the things she must do and doesn’t need the list.

·       She speaks up for herself. 

·       Rachel taught Ashley how to be patient and Ashley taught Rachel how to speak up. 

·       she uses her phone to learn how to spell something and to look things up.  She speaks into the phone and it writes a text for her.   

·       Rachel is a great party planner

·       and she is learning how to be self-advocate. 

 

Ashley ~

Ashley has two brothers who are married and a nephew and niece. One of her brothers lives in Colorado and has a pet pig niece named Velma. 

She is going to Colorado and plans to ski with her brother and sister-in-law on Christmas day!

 

Ashley is an actress and the movie she was in, Gem Seeker, was just at the Skokie movie theater.  She walked the red carpet, and it was fabulous.  A limo picked the actors up and took them to the theater.  Pretty fancy!!

 

She has been doing acting for many years with the Ups for Downs theater group.  She was the lion in The Wizard of Oz.

Ashley is a hard worker and has had many jobs. She worked at Jewel, and at the Kane County Cougar games. She loved working at a nursery school and the kids loved her. Now she works at Burlington Coat factory and really enjoys it but her feet get sore after a long day of work.

Ashley graduated from a two-year program called Career Skills Institute at Harper College.  

 

Ashley’s super powers are:

 

·       Ashley is successful because she is super organized. She has a calendar on her phone and computer. She is fantastic with technology

·       She is resourceful at finding answers she doesn't know

·       She is super quick at thinking things out 

·       Ashley has a good heart and gives things away 

·       She is incredibly helpful and very determined!

·       She has a strong faith life and is very grateful 

·       She is a strong self-advocate 

·       Ash loves to laugh and have fun with her friends.

·       And she is good at brainstorming and thinking of new ideas and problem solving. 

 

 

Ashley and Rachel are room mates 

they have been living together for one year now. 

They have a fabulous home. Some of the things they love to do together are: 

·       They watch full house together 

·       They cook together 

·       Both of them take care of their home 

·       They really like hanging out together 

·       They love to have people over to their place and have parties 

·       They like to have their own rooms and have community gathering space as well.

·       They really enjoy doing crafts, coloring, making lists and working on their healthy lifestyle by finding great recipes.

 

 

Ashley and Rachel 

have been working on a healthy living lifestyle and both have lost weight and are feeling healthy!

They cook together and look for recipes that are healthy. They do a lot of swapping out bad food for good food.

They even started a project called “Just A Dollop”  

They are working on a recipe book and a website. They have you tube video and are working on teaching other people how to cook health food and enjoy cooking. 

Their first mini-Recipe book should be done in the spring.

They have a logo and are thinking about making t-shirts. 

Ashely has a few opportunities to talk about her “Just A Dollop” project coming up in 2023. More to come on how to connect with Ashley and Rachel and learn more about Just a Dollop!

  

 

I am so excited about this and so happy to learn a lot from Rachel and Ashley.

I hope you enjoy this time of year!  Happy New Years.  2023 is heading here fast!

 

Have a great holiday!

Bridget Brown

Pursuing Post-Secondary Education: Think College!

Hi There!

We hope your holiday season is off to a great start and this blog finds you joyful and well! In case you missed it, Bridget recently blogged about how her life has been going at UIC and shared an interview recently conducted with Ryan Burke, an incredible self-advocate who works in schools and has a passion for musicals and enjoying time with loved ones. Make sure to check it out! This time, we will continue exploring post-secondary experiences and opportunities!

Stay warm! Later this month, we will be back with information on how to access accommodations in college and where to go on campus if you are needing support!

Warmly,

Megan

Let’s dive back into pursuing post-secondary education! Today I will be sharing about Think College! Think College provides resources, technical assistance and training related to college options for students with intellectual disability, and manages the only national listing of college programs for students with intellectual disability in the United States. They are a national technical assistance, research, and evaluation center dedicated to developing, expanding, and improving higher education options for students with intellectual disability. With a commitment to equity and excellence, Think College supports evidence-based and student-centered research and practice by generating and sharing knowledge, guiding institutional change, informing public policy, and engaging with students, professionals and families.

Here are some exciting and supportive resources if you or someone you know is interested in attending college! 

Searching for Colleges? The Think College Search features information on 314 postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual disability. There are 16 here in Illinois!! You can find them HERE. 

Are you wanting to share more about Think College with parents, friends, family, or colleagues? You can watch a short 25-minute film produced by Think College that explores the growing movement to include students with intellectual disability in higher education. Click here to access the short film, Rethinking College.

Looking for more information? Check out their FAQ HERE!

Unsure of what questions to ask when researching programs or visiting colleges? HERE is a list of questions you can ask of college programs. 

Interview for Ryan Burke

 

Bridget’s blog for November 2022.

Interview for Ryan Burke

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving celebration with family and friends.   Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year because it reminds all of us to be thankful for everything in our life.  I had a great time with my family making pasta. It is an odd way to celebrate Thanksgiving but everyone, even the little kids, can get involved in making the pasta together and making a huge mess.  It has become a family tradition. Maybe we will have turkey at Christmas time.

I am finishing up my fall classes at UIC. It has been challenging and lots of work but I learned a lot. I hope to get good grades. I will continue working at the Nursing School next semester and I will take a course on radical Inclusion and my internship. This time I will be in class on campus and so that should be very exciting. I think it will be better for me to take classes in person instead of online. I have some great support teachers who do everything they can to help me succeed and I am very grateful for them. I also have a study group and all the accommodations that they have available.  

This month I got the chance to interview my friend Ryan.  He has a smile that brightens up the room when he walks in. He is one of a kind! We were on the board together for the National Association for Down Syndrome (NADS is the oldest organization for people with Down Syndrome.) 

He is 28 years old and comes from a big family. He is a great man.  He lives a full and productive life. He has Down Syndrome, just like me, and we belong to the same special recreation association.

Ryan has an amazing life. He is super friendly and loves people. He inspires people especially his family. One of his sisters is a special education professor. Another sister is a Speech Therapist and he has a brother who is a child psychologist.  All of them were inspired by Ryan. He loves his family and is a proud Uncle to his sister Meagan’s kid.

I was so excited to learn that Ryan attended Notre Dame High School in Niles and was a Burke Scholar. This is amazing because it is an INCLUSIVE high school education program of faith, scholarship and service for students with special needs.

The Burke Scholars Program is the first of its kind in the Archdiocese of Chicago and one of a small selection of such programs in the United States. Notre Dame College Prep believes that all students should have the opportunity to participate in a Catholic high school experience regardless of ability or disability.

Now, Ryan works at Notre Dame High School. He loves it because he can see all his past teachers, he is very familiar with the school and has great memories. He also mentioned that they have really great food!

 Ryan also works at an elementary school called Gower. He loves working there and is very committed to his job. People love working with him because he is reliable and super friendly. He is a perfect employee! He is funny and it is fun to hang out with him. His work at Gower is great because he gets supports from The Working Together Group.

Ryan also has lots of fun in his social life. He loves going to movies with his brothers. He loves musicals and doing activities with Seaspar. He is a powerlifter with Special Olympics and often goes to the competition. He also likes going to dances with friends. He loves bowling and swimming.  

He was in a musical called Fiddler on the Roof. He loves musicals like, Into the Woods, Aladdin, Frozen, and Beauty and the Beast.

.

Here are some of the things that help Ryan succeed:

.Ryan is successful because ~

·         he has lots of great skills and a good attitude

·         He knows how to take public transportation

·         He never gives up

·         He has a great job coach when needed

·         He likes to have a schedule

·         He works hard and has a strong work ethic

·         When things are new or difficult, he sticks with it and keeps trying

·         He is very dedicated and doesn’t like to take any days off

·         He listens when people give him directions

·         Likes seeing people everyday

·         He is very friendly

·         And he likes to try new things

·         He has lots of support in his life

The most important thing is that Ryan has lots of friends and family and enjoys every minute of his life.

It was so much fun to spend time with Ryan and learn more about his amazing life!  One more incredible self-advocate living his best life!