This Think College Story by Allison Rohan and Ty Hanson highlights her emerging career as a fine artist. Allison shares her experiences as a dual enrollment student at Holyoke Community College and how it shaped her career through self-determination, course access, and the support of faculty and mentors.
This Think College Transition Student Profile features Patrick, a student at Bridgewater State University, who has been interested in a career as a DJ since his junior year in high school. Patrick’s clear focus in selecting his classes, combined with his work experience both in high school and college, has put him on the path to reaching his goal.
This Think College Transition Student Profile features Morgan, a dual enrollment student at Holyoke Community College who went on to transfer to Westfield State University. Morgan developed and used self-determination skills to self-direct her transition experience with the support of her college advisors, school transition specialist, educational coaches, peer mentor, and family. This profile highlights the positive outcomes that can be achieved from collaborative planning and fading supports.
There are more than 260 inclusive college programs for students with ID exist across the United States (Think College, 2017). This number represents an exponential increase in programs—nearly 10 times greater than the number of programs available in 2004 (National Coordinating Center Accreditation Workgroup, 2016). Not only are there more programs to choose from, with recent revisions to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, students with ID also can access federal financial aid for attending postsecondary education programs that meet federal requirements.
This online Research Summit from June 2017 featured two researchers who recently completed their doctoral dissertations in the area of postsecondary education for students with intellectual disability. They presented their research and led a discussion on conducting doctoral research during the summit.
To date, there has been limited research on effective programs or practices for supporting young adults with intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in dual-enrollment post-secondary education (PSE) settings. However, emerging research has suggested that providing individuals with intellectual disability and/or ASD opportunities to participate in PSE programs will greatly influence overall quality of life and self-determination (Hart, Grigal, & Weir, 2010).
This video shares the stories of several students with ID who are enrolled in the Next Steps program at Vanderbilt.
In this Think College Story, Will Farrior discusses how learning social skills helped him succeed in college and work.
