I am 50 years old and I’ve never pulled together a speech about myself to share with strangers. I’ve never scheduled an appointment with a State Representative or Senator. I’d never met a high-ranking leader from the US Department of Education (but I did last week!). And at age 20 or 22, I’d never traveled across the country to attend a national conference, knowing only a couple of other people, and I certainly hadn’t done a conference presentation.
Last week, I got to witness 10 college students doing all these things! They exuded confidence and class. They were eloquent and thoughtful. They told their elected officials why people with intellectual disability have the right to go to college… so they can continue learning and get jobs and become independent and participate in their community. I am encouraged and excited to see how these emerging advocates will effect change for others with intellectual disability.
Think College Policy Advocates (TCPA) teams made of a student and staff person from ten inclusive college programs around the country convened in Washington, DC to continue learning about disability advocacy. They had spent several months meeting virtually, learning about advocacy and disability policy in preparation for meetings with their Congressional representatives. During these scheduled meetings, the Policy Advocates shared their stories and educated elected officials about what’s good about college for students with intellectual disability.
What follows are reflections from me as a first time coach, and two other Think College staff who were coaches for TCPA teams. I worked with the team from University of Missouri-St. Louis. Cate Weir, a veteran TCPA coach, worked with the team from Utah Valley University and Shelby Bates, another veteran coach, worked with the team from University of Kansas.
From Cate: 
I was fortunate to coach the mighty team from Utah Valley University - Fish Vosnos, a student, and Morgan Jacobs, program director. Throughout the process, starting with the pre-event webinars earlier this Fall and preparing a poster to present at the AUCD Annual Meeting, Fish took the lead and made sure he and Morgan were on top of everything. It was such an honor to watch two developing advocates learn skills they will use throughout their lifetime as they effectively advocated, educated and coordinated important appointments.
Their hard work resulted in three impactful meetings with Utah representatives during our time in the nation’s capital. They met with Representative John Curtis’ Director of Policy, and after sharing the "elevator speeches" they had worked on for weeks, did a great job answering follow up questions, and there were many! A similarly successful and informative
meeting followed with Representative Mike Lee’s director of constituent engagement. Their final appointment on the Hill was with Senator Mitt Romney and his director of education policy. Senator Romney was interested to hear about the program at Utah Valley and IPSE in Utah. He asked great questions and posed for a picture with Fish and Morgan. Audrey, the senator’s Education Policy director, was very interested in what Fish had to say about college affordability and the use of funding, such as Vocational Rehabilitation, to help pay for college in Utah and elsewhere. She vowed to follow up! Throughout our three days in Washington, DC, Fish and Morgan worked diligently to refine their “elevator speech”, eager to learn what data they could share that would emphasize the value and importance of IPSE initiatives and illustrate the issue of college affordability. I know they made an impact on their Utah representatives in Congress. I was proud to watch them do it in real time!
From Shelby:
TCPA is the best part of my year. The past two years I have coached a team (staff and student pair) to learn about policy issues, travel to DC, and meet with their Congressional representatives. Many have never met with an elected official before. Often during visits to Capitol Hill, the representative or aide shares about a connection they have to someone with intellectual disability. They might have a cousin or a sibling with ID, and they share how much college would mean to them. This is a nice reminder that our elected officials are just like anyone else, and they care about many of the same things I care about. The other thing that stands out to me is the awe that people experience when they travel to Washington DC for the first time (myself included). There is something special about seeing our country’s capital and engaging in democracy there. It is my hope that teams return home feeling empowered to continue to reach out to their officials, knowing how impactful their voices truly are.
And Rebecca again:
I partnered with the team from University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL), who I got to know via Zoom for the last couple of months. What a joy it was to meet them in person! It was great to get to know Lucy and hear about the classes she takes at UMSL, what kind of job she might like to have some day (could be a professional dancer, or maybe an event planner), and even talk a bit about relationships. It took me back to my own college days!
Lucy did a great job presenting a poster with Chris called Building Power Through Advocacy. She also spent some time with me at the Think College exhibit and attended the AUCD Awards Ceremony. We practiced her elevator speech and she revised it a lot, so when she spoke with Alex Gorman, the Legislative Correspondent from Senator Josh Hawley’s office, she was able to tell him about all the benefits she’s experienced by attending UMSL SUCCEED. I am really proud of Lucy, and am so glad I got to be a TCPA coach this year.
About the post authors: All staff of Think College, Rebecca Lazo is Knowledge Translation Manager, Cate Weir is Program Director for the National Coordinating Center, and Shelby Bates is Technical Assistance Specialist. We are all passionate about inclusive college options for students with intellectual disability.