Students take home a diploma for their hard work. Photo by Stephen Petegorsky.
The Polus Center for Social and Economic Development hosted its inaugural Roadmap to College residential summer program at UMass Amherst, from July 31st to August 12th, 2023. The program was designed to introduce blind and low-vision high school students from Massachusetts, who receive services from the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, to the college experience and build a strong foundation in independence and self-advocacy skills. It was also a time to spend in a community of their peers and mentors.
The group of students, Polus Center staff, as well as some UMass student staff, stayed together on campus in a cluster of apartments. They went grocery shopping, learned and practiced cooking skills and utilized various apps to order food. They did laundry and other skills of independent living. They navigated dining halls on campus, used public transportation to get around local towns and practiced navigating with AIRA, a visual interpreting service.
There were evening presentations and question and answer sessions. Guest speakers included Heather Tuck, a disability advocate; current college students; recent college graduates, as well as a group of UMass professors and staff who discussed disability services and advocacy.
Hoby Wedler, an American chemist and entrepreneur from California, who has been blind since birth taught STEM classes over two days in a UMass Chemistry lab. Wedler has advocated for greater accessibility of science to disabled students and even suggests that visually impaired chemists could have an advantage over sighted colleagues, due to the need to mentally imagine the structure of organic compounds. The group had some fun doing various experiments using liquid nitrogen, and even made ice cream.
English and creative writing was taught by Kate Chadbourne, a local Massachusetts teacher, storyteller and musician. The students learned to use various assistive technology, navigate course websites, how to access materials, along with study skills & note taking techniques.
Jim Turk, the founder of Fight Back Self Defense, taught two sessions of classes to work on confidence and the group spent time at the Sattva Center for Archery Training in Florence, Massachusetts where they had the opportunity to learn skills in an indoor archery range.
The group visited nearby Hampshire College for a tour, and an information session with their Office of Accessibility Resources & Services. Roadmap to College wanted to give them an idea of academic and campus life at a much smaller institution and compare it to UMass, Amherst.
An afternoon was spent grooming and riding horses at The Achieve Collective, a non-profit equine facility organization in Granby, MA. The organization is run by women, several of whom have disabilities themselves.
Precious Perez, a classically trained pop, R&B and Latin singer/songwriter, music educator, and disability advocate spent time with the group. With a double Bachelor’s in music education and vocal performance from Berklee College of Music, Precious aims to be the first blind Latina artist at the forefront of the Latin music industry. Students learned content creation and how to use recording equipment for music, podcasts, social media and even wrote and recorded their own song.
Two other highlights of the program were white water rafting on the Deerfield River with ZOAR Outdoor and visiting and volunteering at the Pocumtuck Homelands Festival in Turners Falls, a celebration of primarily Northeastern tribal cultures.
Most importantly, they learned the self-advocacy and time management skills they will need during their time in college and in life after they graduate. They had a very busy couple of weeks, but still found time to relax and enjoy some down time including an afternoon of bowling, with new friends.