ROUGH EDITED COPY

Institute for Community InclusionUniversity of Massachusetts Boston

One Girl’s Dream of College Changed Others’ Ways of Thinking

December 12, 2017

www.CaptionFamily.com

* * * * *This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation

(CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings

* * * * *

>> It's just 4:00. I see people are starting to arrive and probably get settled. Just

we'll give people a few more minutes to get connected and comfortable before we start

our webinar. But thanks to everyone who is here so far.

Well, I'll get started with introductions. My name is Rebecca Lazo. I'm the

knowledge translation associate at Think College. Today we have with us Jennifer

Farmer and Chloe Farmer. Jennifer is a blogger and a Super Mom. Jennifer is enrolled

in a JD program right now and holds a BA in public relations from Flagler College.

She's in the process of incorporating Include Me advocacy group into a nonprofit

organization that will focus on specific projects and serve as a resource match for those

seeking to advocate for their differently abled children. She's a strong advocate for

inclusion and self-taught, helping enabling every student to reach their potential despite

whatever barriers may be present.

Today's webinar, entitled Include Me in College is named after a blog, which she

updates regularly about Chloe attending college at Vanderbilt. A few notes about

Zoom, I don't know how many of you have attended Think College webinars in the past,

but we used to use a different platform. You should see some options at the bottom of

your screen to chat or ask questions. Please feel free to use those. Jennifer said she's

willing -- she and Chloe are both willing to take questions throughout the presentation. I

will be recording the webinar, and that will be available online after the presentation is

over. We also have captioning available. You should see the link in the chat box here

on the page.

At the end of the webinar, I would like to ask people to respond to a quick poll,

just three questions about your experience today, and how we can make sure that we

provide webinars that are meaningful and useful for you.

What am I missing? I don't know. I am not sure that I'm missing anything, so I'm

going to let Jennifer and Chloe say hello.

>> Do you want to say hi, Chloe?

>> Hi.

>> Hello out there from Nashville.

[Applause]

We are enjoying it today. I have flip-flops on in December, so I just want to state

that openly, because coming from Chicago, that's an amazing thing.

>> We hate the cold.

>> Yeah, we are not a big fan of the cold. And thank you, Becky, for the warm

introduction. We are so happy to be here and share Chloe's story. We hope that other

families and students that are looking for similar outcomes can learn from us, and we

are certainly here to help any way we can. So I titled today's presentation, I kind of

kicked it up a notch. It's really how I became a Vanderbilt Mom, because it didn't

happen overnight. It happened because of this one right here. Okay, so the very first, I

guess, notion we had or idea of Chloe attending college came from Chloe herself. This

is a picture of Chloe when she was in the ninth grade, and she hasn't really changed a

whole, whole, whole lot on the outside, but I can tell you that every day she is gaining

more skills and growing into a wonderful young lady. So, in the transition time between

middle school to high school, Chloe came home one day and sat my husband and I

down and gave us what we now call the talk. And she said to us that what she really

wanted to do after high school was go to college, and there are moments in life that

define who you are, and I could have responded in so many different ways, but what I

said was, although I was terrified, what I said was, okay, that sounds great. Let's just

figure out whatever that means, and we'll just roll with it. That's great that you want to

go to college. I was thrilled that she made a decision and set a goal like that for herself.

I had absolutely no clue what that would look like, what it would cost, what that

meant. I was in the dark, definitely. That would be a really easy way to say it. So

Chloe decided that because her friends at school, because she had to many

neurotypical friends, Chloe is a social butterfly, self-proclaimed, so they were all going

to college, and that's what she wanted to do. So with that began my journey about

research and my journey about communicating openly with that, and what I found out

rather quickly is one of two things. Either everyone thought I was insane, which is fine.

I'm cool. Or, no, I'm not? You don't think so?

>> No, no.

>> Either everyone thought I was nuts, or they thought it was impossible, or they

really didn't -- they like me. We were all kind of I guess fumbling around in the dark, I

guess is the easiest way to say it. So after that talk with Chloe, and she was convinced

that she wanted to go, we made the decision to start crowd sourcing and networking

and researching and figuring out what that meant.

So the very first thing I did was start a blog and find inclusion social networking

groups, and that led to us really talking about Include Me. Include Me was something

that we did intentionally to share our story, and not just our story, just Chloe's story,

because it's a very powerful thing for someone to say that they want to do something,

someone that already has barriers to doing that, so we thought what we would do is

stand up and stand out and just include everybody on that journey. Yeah, it was a

gamble. It was a risk. We didn't know if Chloe would be accepted into college, if that

would ever really be the final outcome. We certainly hoped it would, and we were going

to do everything we could to make that happen, but along that, I noticed that other

families in our area were not necessarily entertaining the idea of college but then kind of

began to as we started talking about it more, and I began to meet people and cultivate

my resources, and that really led us to very, very quickly and early on to Think College

and the US Department of Education. I can't say enough about the resources that were

available to us, because we needed to sit down and really think about what Chloe

wanted and what was important to her.

So one of the things that Chloe said early on that she wanted -- do you

remember?

>> To go to college.

>> You wanted to go to college, but what did you want out of college?

>> A job.

>> But what was important to you at whatever school you went to?

>> A big football team.

>> A big football team. When we took her on college interviews, what I'll get to in

a minute, she said, she would tell them openly that she wanted to tailgate, and really

that led us to schools with big football programs, so right there, you know, you're talking

about, what the SEC schools mainly. We did look locally first, and, you know, we used

to think college's site, and I certainly did blog about all of that research, but her top

criteria was football and then having a figure skating rink nearby. She also wanted

access to science classes, and that would be a deal breaker for her if she couldn't have

that. Chloe is a science geek, that we learned pretty quickly. Yeah.

>> Because of my dad.

>> Because of your dad. Yeah, her dad is a geek, so she's a geek, I guess. She

thinks it's -- they do, though. They watch a lot of documentaries and geek out together,

which is fun.

>> And I like to watch daddy play video games.

>> Okay, but that's -- [laughter] -- so there's that piece to it. But we began to

narrow down Chloe's choices, and --

>> We visit University of Tennessee, Clemson.

>> Let me put this slide up. There you go. Where did we go?

>> University of South Carolina.

>> And what do you remember about the University of South Carolina? Do you

remember going there?

>> A little.

>> Do you remember our tour?

>> Yeah.

>> When they took Chloe on a tour, University of South Carolina was the first

one that we went to, and we wanted to see what was called one of the life programs,

and the life programs came out of South Carolina, the state of, not just the university,

and there was a man that I became acquainted with by the name of Donald Bailey. He

wrote about his request to do pretty much the same thing we did, which was how it

started, anyway, for him, was to find a college placement for his son, Donald Bailey, Jr.

He wrote a book about it. Now, he ended up really in places that he didn't really see

himself, like before the -- I think the legislature of South Carolina, you know, securing

funds for these programs. He really was someone that stood out and said, you know,

I'm going to make this happen, and the positive contribution, the groundwork that his

committee, that his brain, if you will, laid for the rest of us was just fantastic, because all

of a sudden families like us have choices, whereas we didn't maybe before.

So we started at University of South Carolina, and that was Chloe's junior year,

but her spring break, so that was pretty common. That's kind of what all of the kids in

high school were doing. Spring break-wise, you go on your college tour, so that's what

we did. And we drove down. We went skating with a nice lady in Charlotte to kind of

get an idea of how far that would be from the school and all of that stuff.

We stayed on campus, which I absolutely loved. They have a hotel on campus.

>> Cool.

>> And it really was welcoming, and, you know, we were just right there, and we

can walk to everything under the sun, and Columbia of course is just beautiful. They

have all of these really old buildings, and it's just very tall. Everything is very tall. That's

what I remember about it, is everything was just so tall, but they took us on the tour, and

we were just entranced by all of this stuff that you can buy with gamecocks on it, and all

of the things that you can do and see, and Chloe fell in love with the food plan. That

was her big thing. We have blogged about it and posted a video of it, and she very

openly states that her very favorite feature of the University of South Carolina was their

food plan, and we just loved it.

We liked their inclusive curriculum, because one of the things that they did, and I

don't know if they still do or not, because we of course didn't end up -- Chloe didn't end

up attending that school, one of the things that they did is they were starting to include

the live students in study abroad, and that's something that Chloe has always wanted to

talk about is traveling, going very far away from me on an airplane. But, you know, we'll

talk about that part eventually, right?

So, that was one of the things they did, and they also have the life students, they

give them course access to major courses, so Chloe was looking at, you know, like an

athletics sports kind of thing, and they have a major, for example, in athletic training, so

she would have been able to, had we gone that route, she'd have access to those

courses, you know, alongside the majors in the class. So that was one of the features

that we really liked about the University of South Carolina.

Do you know where we went next?

>> University of Tennessee?

>> Nope.

>> Clemson?

>> And what did we like about Clemson? What was your favorite thing about

Clemson?

>> Football.

>> Football, but what else?

>> Cheer.

>> Tigers. They had the Clemson tigers.

>> Roar.

>> And they were everywhere. During my research, I had read a lot about

Clemson, and being at Clemson is just overwhelming, and I say that because it is so

embracing, and they are so inclusive and just so many different things that they do, and

there were numerous students that stopped us when we were on the bus, when we

were walking around campus, they asked Chloe, you know, hi. I'm so and so, I

volunteer at Clemson Life. Some of the real heartwarming and amazing stories that you

see about college come out of Clemson, and they are, no kidding, all heart, and just

being there with them, you can see that, and you can feel it. I mean I could feel it.

Unfortunately, the curriculum didn't include, and I don't know if it does now, I am not

sure, but at the time when we were looking at it for Chloe, it did not include course

access to science, and that was a deal breaker for her. So we chose to take Clemson

out of our running, but it was hard, and I did go ahead and write all of that down in case

anyone wants to read more about Clemson, so do you remember anything that you

want to share about Clemson? No?

>> No.

>> They also have a hotel. I just want to say that, really, really adorable bedding,

and Starbucks. Loved it, and a parent club. So that was really fun for me. But you

don't remember anything else?

>> No.

>> No? She just liked to walk around with the Starbucks and the tigers. So

where did we go next Chloe?

>> Vandy?

>> No.

>> I don't know. The University of Tennessee.

>> What do you remember about University of Tennessee?

>> The volunteers.

>> The volunteers. And I think immediately the first thing that we noticed was

how incredibly orange everything was, I mean just incredibly. It was fantastic. We have

a family member that went to the University of Tennessee. Nice rivalry now that we are

at Vandy, by the way. But we were able to really go right in there and meet Mr. Beeson.

Do you remember Mr. Beeson? Chloe just absolutely loved him from day one, and

some of the students that were currently in the program, and we were able to ask a lot

of questions. Do you remember some of the things that we asked him or some of the

things that they said? Do you remember what they talked about?

>> I -- no.

>> No? They were talking about what they were doing currently for internships

and coursework. Of course, my first question is how the heck do you keep all of these

students organized? So he has everybody's calendar. He uses a lot of technology and

encourages that, which is right up Chloe's alley. She really can text like a champion.

She's still working on some of her other stuff, but she's fairly technology literate, I would

say, don't you think?

So we loved University of Tennessee. We took those tours. Right off the bat,

Mr. Beeson suggested -- he was very in tune with what we were saying. He gave us a

lot to think about. One of the things that he suggested was incorporating Chloe into a

sorority, maybe looking at some fashion classes, and that's something that Chloe has

an interest in. She may or may not -- what?

>> Want to.

>> Want to what?

>> Do it.

>> Do what? What? You don't know? Are you shy today?

>> A little.

>> She's talking about designing her own line of skate wear.

>> Just a little.

>> Just a little shy today. Okay. So she was talking about that, and that kind of

fell in line with what we were saying.

One of the things that we noticed about Tennessee is it's extremely large, and

there's a lot of crosswalks, so that made me a little hesitant, but I don't think that it's -- I

don't think it's something that Chloe can't learn. I just thought, you know, at the onset,

I'm like, wow, this appears just so much bigger than the other schools, and I think it

really is.

So then where did we go last? Tell them.

>> Vandy.

>> Vandy. We went to Vandy. Do you remember what you said about Vandy,

the first day that we went?

>> I loved it.

>> Uh-huh. Chloe fell in love with the campus very quickly.

>> Just like that, and the football team.

>> And the football team. And I have to say what impressed me the most about

Vanderbilt, and this is no way -- I'm not -- they know that we are very grateful to be

there, and that we are very happy for Chloe to be part of the freshman class, but I think

what impressed me the most was the very first conversation that we had, I was

speaking with their director, Tammy Day, and she asked me what we thought so far

about the program, and I explained to her very quickly that we were not making the

decision, that we were roadies, and Chloe was making the decision, and right away she

switched gears and talked to Chloe and really engaged her in the campus and in the

tour, and they talked about different parts of campus. They talked about what was

going on on campus.

Do you remember what was going on that day, that we went to? It has to do with

painting.

>> Art.

>> Art, yes. We joined an art class, and Chloe was able to walk in and see what

that looked like. She was able to freely meet and talk to students, which was something

really fun, and I love that feature. I think that really all of the programs should offer that,

if they can, especially for the open houses and whatnot. What else did you like?

>> What else?

>> Do you remember? I think you were shown a tree, and you really liked the

tree, the scenery, just everything about it. I mean, yes, there's a cool scene in Nashville

that we really enjoyed, but on campus it again is really beautiful, and we weren't -- when

we came home from that, there was a lot of decompressing and a lot of discussion

around, okay, so we have been to these schools. They have all been pretty open and

accepting. How the heck do we rank all of this stuff? And so we naturally asked Chloe

for her opinion, which she would not give us. Instead, she started wearing Vanderbilt

clothes and hanging up the football posters on her wall. So her choice was clear, but

she never really came out and said I have to go to this school or this one is my favorite.

She just started showing us that every chance she got, which I thought was really cool,

although it would have been probably easier if she would have just said, hey, this is the

one I want. But we certainly encouraged Chloe to apply to more than one school,

because there's not as many spots as, you know, you want in a program. It's not the

same as a general admission. I mean, now, of course Vandy's admission rate is like

9% or something, and I don't know what their percentage is for Next Steps. I have

never even really looked at that. I don't know what their acceptance rate is. But I do

know that there's only a limited number of spots in every single program that we were

looking at. So, for that reason we really wanted to organize our process and our

admission dates. So that takes us to here, which is the application process.

So, this right here is Chloe's actual application. That is a I believe two-inch

binder with I think eight tabs in it, and of course her adorable picture, which I am sure

everyone loves, right, because that star is so cute. I love that star. Anyway, I always

get sidetracked with the star, and I'll always love it, and I'm so grateful that it will be in

our life forever and part of Chloe's legacy now and our family. But, so in the binder

there is a neuropsych eval, past and current IEPs, letters of recommendation, and a

personal statement. So, one of the things that Vanderbilt does that I don't believe any

of the other schools offered to us was early admission. So I love that because I knew

that we would find out in January, and although you had to maybe apply to other

schools in the meantime, we would find out. I mean, we would know, and so that

became the very first school that we applied to, and it was a lot getting ready for all of

that. We had to first look at who -- I mean, I think my first thing that we looked at, we

delved into, were who would write us letters of recommendation. Chloe figure skates,

so she's always had a private figure skate coach, and that was a natural

recommendation for us. Certainly, you know, youth group leaders or people that know

your students well, teachers or whatnot would be people that you could ask, I think, but

for us we really wanted ours to stand out, because that's how we roll, and so one of the

people that we asked people to write for Chloe was her best friends, and she did write

letters to -- I don't know that she wrote it to Vandy, but I know that she wrote it some of

the other schools that we applied to as well, because I think it's important to include

from a neurotypical student's perspective, you know, how is this student going to

assimilate. I mean, I realize it's only one kid's opinion, okay, fine. But I think it means

something when another student cares enough to really write a good recommendation

letter for their peer. So we definitely included that.

>> You should show them the video when I got into Vandy.

>> I will tell them where they can see the video. You guys want to know where

you can see the video, right, the letter opening video. It is on the Next Steps website,

just so -- but we'll talk about that at the end, if you would remind me.

>> Do it.

>> Okay. So, the neuropsychological evaluation, Chloe's diagnosis, for everyone

listening that doesn't know, is Williams syndrome, and I'll be very brief with that, but it is

a deletion on the elastin gene number 7. So there are specific IQ tests that capture her

skill set better than others, and the people that really know that are I guess Williams

syndrome clinic providers but also the one that we went to was at the University of

Milwaukee or University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. We went there. We used her

evaluations as a basis for Chloe's programming for a long time, and I just always feel

like she always hits the nail on the head, and when I compare them to maybe what

other neuropsychological evaluations say, like from the school system or even from

another independent one that we had, I just felt like hers really captured Chloe, and I

think that's important if you're going to include it. I think as parents, you kind of have to

know what that says and what it means and what it's saying about your student. And if

you don't, you know, give me a call. Email me. I'll be happy to try to help or point you in

some sort of direction, because I wanted to be able to speak to what Chloe can and

can't accomplish, according to that piece of paper. Now, I'm not really a firm believer

that a paper will tell me the future or say that she is going to get an A here or whatnot,

but I did like to know what it said.

So the IEPs, we used a couple of tools to advocate that I will go through in the

next slide, but you do include them as part of the application process, so you really want

to pay attention to in the IEP process how does that -- what does that look like. Is my

student participating? Is my student giving it the attention that it deserves?

Chloe, do you remember how many IEP meetings that you have been included

in?

>> IEP? No.

>> In high school, do you remember? No? A lot.

She was included in after them in high school, since the age of --

What, 14?

>> I believe so.

>> Are they fun?

>> Not really.

>> Not really. [Laughter]. They are not her favorite. But she did go in and get to

choose.

What did you get to choose in your IEP meetings?

>> Classes.

>> Classes that you want to take? Yeah, she did. She did have a say in all of

that.

So you have to allow for time in the application process, is the point I'm making

here, to procure all of these documents, if you don't have them. You have to know

where to get them. So we had sort of a calendar going on for us. So the only school

that we had, like I said, early admission to was Vandy, an early admission option, and

that deadline, which we were well before, we actually wrapped up and got this thing

done, I think, to them in August, so I think the deadline was like November, so then we

could concentrate on the next one, because each one of these are packets. I chose to

display this one, because this is a school that Chloe ended up going to.

Oh, one thing that I did not hit on was the personal statement. Chloe's personal

statement we did it in the format of a Prezi, and it did go ahead and talk about all of the

different areas of things that she had done and showcase her successes. We talked

about the courses that she had taken in high school.

What else did your Prezi talk about, Chloe? Do you remember?

>> No, I --

>> What else was in your Prezi?

>> Prezi? Ice skating.

>> Ice skating. And what else? What other sports?

>> Cheer.

>> Cheer. Gymnastics.

>> Gymnastics, track and field.

>> I don't think we put track in there. So one thing that we did was mirror what a

typical student then would sort of look like, and we did, you know, the academic portion,

the work experience portion, the athletics portion, and then we did things she would like

to do in the future.

Do you remember what you said you wanted to do in the future, what some of

your interests were? Do you remember your interests? No?

>> No. It's --

>> No?

>> No.

>> Did it have anything to do with natural disasters?

>> Volcanologists.

>> Volcanos. Chloe loves the natural disasters, so we said in the future that she

would like to learn more about natural disasters. We kind of gave a summary of what

she wants to do, what she is looking for, and what it meant to her to go to college.

Okay. So, while you're in high school there are tools that you can use. Some of

the things that I did really quickly that helped me I think at -- okay. Some of the things

that really helped me advocate while she was still in high school were taking a look at

what life after high school would look like, and then advocating for that, so that she

would be in the best position to be as successful as she could be.

So the college entrance requirements, we used those for setting goals, so things

like using various forms of communication via computers or tablets. She understood

how to use both PC and Mac. Mac not as much as the desktop, but like she had a

chrome book and she had an iPad and she had access to her phone. So if you put her

in either one of those formats, she knew that. It is required that everyone at Vanderbilt

had a cell phone, so all throughout high school she would carry, manage, take her cell

phone and learn how to text and how to use the numbers and grab the data out of it and

those kinds of things.

One of the things that I did to help me, I guess, know what Chloe liked and what

she didn't, Chloe is not always the most verbal in expressing her opinion outright. So

you kind of have to look at her and put her in different situations and see how she reacts

to them. I don't know if your student is like that. I think all students are different. I'm

just kind of talking, I guess, from my perspective on mine. So we used career

assessment results to help us understand what that looked like, and I find that

generally, this is very general, when special education departments give a student a

career aptitude test, it's limited in what outcomes can happen, so we didn't do that. We

used Career Cruising, and it was completely broad and open, and we didn't have any

filters or search parameters or any of those things. So hers was completely open to

every occupation, just like every neurotypical child on earth, and what we did was she

took it on the iPad. It was about 190 questions, words that she didn't know. You know,

she could ask and, you know, we would help her define those words, and instead of

doing it like in one sitting, like maybe you do in high school, we did it in a week, maybe

a week and a half. It was very boring for her, but we kept that to a limit, and, you know,

asked her the questions.

Do you remember what your number one was?

>> Professional athlete.

>> Professional athlete. I had no idea, guys. I had absolutely no idea, but I

immediately sought participation in Special Olympics, sports, and started building her

portfolio of sports, because she loves them. She loves to watch them. She loves to be

in them. She loves all of the action.

Another one that she scored was, let's see, model and dancer. This semester

she is taking dance at Vanderbilt. She loves it. She loves to skate. She loves being

active. So I think it was the best thing that I could have done, and I encourage

everyone to do something similar to that, and then to give your student actual

experience. Chloe's first any kind of job experience was an estate gardener at places

like Peabody State. She also scored very well and very high in sciences. I think

something with animals and something with plants, I think horticulture is that something

you scored -- I don't know, are you stuck on the athlete? She's stuck on the athlete.

But you want to have a couple of different experiences. You want to be able to

do this broadly, so that's what we did. I'm not saying it's right or perfect. It just worked

for us better than, you know, the tests and the results for everything else that were

available. And I was able to take that in there and say, hi, you should include her in

typical PE because this is what she wants to do. She's taken all of these classes, and

we would like to see if she is successful. Plus, in college she'll be able to do this and

this. So that way one way to use the career assessment as a -- you don't want to say a

bargaining chip, but anyone who has been through an IEP meeting knows that

sometimes you have to compromise, so you don't always get every single thing that you

want, unless you're very lucky.

>> I don't mean to interrupt you. This is Rebecca. I think somebody might have

had a question.

Yvonne, are you on the line?

>> Sure.

>> Yvonne? I saw that someone named Yvonne raised their hand earlier, and I

tried to unmute her to see if she could speak to ask her question. Yvonne, are you able

to speak your question? Okay. If not, or if anyone else has questions, you may type

them into a chat box here in Zoom, and in the meantime we'll have Jennifer keep going.

Yvonne, if you're able to make your audio work, you can just speak up and ask

your question to Jennifer and Chloe.

All right. Pardon the interruption. Go ahead, Jennifer.

>> Okay. Thanks so much.

So -- oh, and okay, so the neuropsychological evaluation we used for placement.

There are, I guess, different views on where students should be placed. I think that's

probably a whole separate topic, but we were able to use what we felt was the most

valid and comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, excuse me, to basically

demonstrate that Chloe needed to be in some life skills for her curriculum, but she also

needed to be mainstreamed into some courses for her curriculum so that she had a

variety of environments and settings. And -- oh, can you please repeat the name of the

career assessment tool you recommend.

We use Career Cruising. It was available through her high school. I -- Career

Cruising was the name of it. You just go in and create an account. Yep.

Okay, so back to the neuropsychological evaluation, I don't know if you have

specific questions on that or, you know, kind of what they look like, but we were able,

like I said, to say, you know, placement -- and when I'm saying placement, I mean

placement in each class. So Chloe has a different learning curve based on

environment. She has done that since probably the third grade. She has been in more

of a general education setting for science. So she's able to learn science that way, and

she's proud of it and happy with it, and we wanted her to continue that.

So I have some best practices for advocacy, and I'll back up a bit. I'm saying

everyone that's ever been in an IEP meeting, but, you know, really it can be -- it can't -- I

have been in situations where it can be very, very heated, very, very opinionated, very,

very -- I don't want to use the word combative, but I can. But I have also been in

situations where you can capture that compromise. Now, it takes a lot of work on both

sides, and I feel like at this point I could probably negotiate anything after that. You

know, I just think that once you lay the groundwork and you do it in a way that's -- I

won't say emotionless, but that's purposeful, intentional and meaningful, I think helps

you come across. And you do have to walk into the meeting with a plan. I will say that.

I had a big scary binder.

So here we go. Here's my best practices. Passion versus emotion, when I talk,

you may not notice my passion for what I'm saying. I believe in education for everyone.

I believe in college for even that wants to attend. I don't think it should be a question

mark whether or not somebody can attend college. I think it should be how do they

attend college, and furthermore what kind of employment can we get them so that they

can make a meaningful and positive contribution to society, because I think every

person on the planet has the ability to do that in some way, and that's, you know -- it

doesn't matter what barrier is there. There's a way around any barrier. You can always

outthink it or outmaneuver it somehow.

So sometimes these meetings are designed to talk about the negative aspects of

a student or their percentage to neurotypical. My goal for Chloe, are you with us? You

are? Okay, great. My goal for Chloe -- stay tuned -- has never been for her to be

normal, not for a minute. It's not going to happen. Unless you can just say -- I mean,

and what is normal, anyway, right? But unless you can just go ahead and put those

chromosomes back in, she's never going to be neurotypical. It's never going to happen.

She's not going to perform the same way everyone else was, and I mean, really, do any

of us? But sometimes in a meeting, it's hard for a parent to talk about that, to talk about

their differences, to talk about that percentage of normal. Oh, your student is only at

this grade reading level. Like, okay. Well, there's a couple of things you should keep in

mind.

Does anybody know what the average newspaper grade level reading is? I think

it's like fourth or fifth grade. So, if Chloe can read the normal newspaper, hey, she's

average, right? I mean, that's the way I look at it. And with science, some of these

things she's grade level, folks. So I think it depends on the student, but in your mind, as

a person, as a parent, as an advocate, you just have got to leave the tissue box at

home. You've got to just find a way to not get caught up in that raw emotion, even if you

want to, because there are times. There are times, I mean, I think for everybody that it

happens.

>> Are you seeing this question from Julie, I think? She says what are your

thoughts about going to a college away from Chloe's home base. How does it play as

the networks and communities that she has created near home and her ability to step

back into that should she return?

>> Chloe, we did move from Chicago to Nashville, so we basically -- I mean, we

did. That's exactly what we did. She -- I mean she still has friends and stuff at home,

but Chloe is a very resilient person, and she has absolutely never had a problem

making friends. You know, her social skills have always been a strength for her. She's

always very busy.

Aren't you? Yes. So can you answer -- I'm sorry, Julie -- did it make you

nervous to leave home and to create a new home?

>> No.

>> No? Why not? Come over here. Why not?

>> I don't -- I don't know.

>> Did you think that you were kind of confident about it, and you -- what? Did

you really just want to go to college, so you didn't care?

She really wanted to cheer for football [laughter]. No. Let's see, and her ability

to step back in that should she return. So I don't know that we'll go back to

Chicagoland, but she definitely still has maintained friendships and whatnot there.

People have written to her, and she certainly keeps in touch with her youth group and

some of her friends from high school. Yeah?

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. So I hope I answered your question, Julie, and thank you for that. If

not, type some more and I'll answer it. Okay.

So, some other best practices in advocacy are goals and skills. One of the

things that happened a lot is the school would want to tell us what goals Chloe should

have based on her performance as a typical student, and like I said, that wasn't what we

were looking for, so we were able to work with them to add in goals. I'll get you,

Suzanne, in one second. We were able to add in goals specifically geared towards

what Chloe wanted to do. For example, Chloe wanted to be able to --

What were some of the things you wanted to be able to do?

>> Ice skate.

>> Ice skate. Okay. But we didn't have that goal in your IEP. She wanted to be

able to -- I'm trying to think of one. Oh, I know. Instead of write her things down with

handwriting, she wanted to be able to type, so we were able to establish a goal that her

typing skills would increase, for example, so my comment about goals is really that you

should, when you're going to write goals in a meeting, you should write goals that will be

precursors to acquiring skills that your student actually needs and not just goals for the

sake of having goals or because they are based on a standard.

We did move with Chloe. One of the reasons that we moved with Chloe is

because Chloe is a competitive figure skater, and we manage all of that with her. That's

a whole 'nother realm that she has delved into.

The other thing is that I was freezing and I just wanted to get out of Chicago. We

love Nashville. We are having just a fun time, so we did move to support her as well.

We do think that there are some skills in life that she does need some help with, and

some maybe not so much as we thought.

So the last topic in advocacy, best practices is the right tack. I would encourage

every single person that has a special student to -- I mean, definitely request a assistive

technology evaluation. So it's key because assistive technology allows students to have

access to a curriculum on different levels. Computers are just a basic thing now

anyway. I mean, there's really to me not a reason that assistive technology shouldn't be

in a classroom. There are schools that are resistant to it, though. I have heard that,

and I think that you just have to keep pushing and explain why it's a benefit, and for us it

was real simple. Oh, well, we are going to base her goals off requirements to enter

Vanderbilt, because that's her number one choice. So she needs how to use a cell

phone. She needs to know how to read on an iPad. She needs to know how to do a

PowerPoint presentation. She needs to be literate in all of these things. In order to do

that, you need to let her use a computer in a classroom. So for us, it was a no-brainer.

It was really easy. Like I said, they were resistant in the beginning.

One of the things that I also overlooked here is they also have access to

curriculum materials online now, so, you know, Chloe can rent her textbooks, and they

can go straight to her iPad or her phone, excuse me, or her computer. So I can't really

talk about the value of technology enough.

Okay. So this is my favorite slide. I hope you guys are ready. So, this is Chloe's

story. Chloe did get accepted into Vanderbilt Next Steps program. She is a member of

the class of 2021.

>> Woohoo!

>> She is in that picture somewhere. We are still not sure where exactly, and I

think the biggest goal that's part of this is my daughter set a goal, and she did it. We

helped her, but she did it, and that's huge. It was huge for our family. Like I said, we

had no idea if it could happen, if it was possible, if it would happen. But it did, didn't it?

And now we all get to wear these things. Okay. She really wants me to show you this

part of my shirt, so I'm going to lift it up, if I can. Can you guys see that, Vanderbilt

mom? So I love that shirt. That was the very first thing I bought myself at the

bookstore. And yeah, Chloe has one on too, not mom, though.

We are all totally and completely geared up. I'll tell you that. My husband had --

okay. My husband has the dad shirt on today to support me, even though he is not

here.

>> And to support both of us.

>> Yes. So Chloe had a wonderful first semester. She's now a second semester

freshman.

>> Yay!

>> And we are just so proud of her and all she is accomplishing, and it's been

amazing. But I will tell you, if you're thinking about it, if you wonder can I do this, could

we do this, could my family do this, yes, you can do it. We did it. We did it. We all did it

together. And I would do it again, and when she opened that acceptance letter, guys, it

was worth it. It was worth every single minute.

>> We both cried.

>> Yeah, we did. I think she went like this on her video, which you guys can see

at the Next Steps website, if you go. Welcome to all of the freshmen.

Okay. Thanks. I have mixed feelings about leaving job, social, and community

networks by attending a different college, then having to start over once he returns to

his home state, not about his ability to adapt and embrace the experience. Right, yeah,

I know.

>> Yay.

>> I don't know that that was really, Julie, a consideration of ours, because we

knew that we were just going to move with her, and that was mainly because of the

figure skating situation, because, you know, she's on the ice a lot. It's part of her

curriculum, you know, now. She's very proudly the first member of the national figure

skating club. She really has made a lot of friends there and close connections with

them. But I do get what you're saying, because, okay, they go away to school, and then

they come home, and then what does that look like. I think it's a challenge for anybody

that goes to college, because, you know, you have all of the connections and things.

But hopefully if it's a program that is geared toward, you know, creating skills and

looking for that job, that employment piece, then those skills would translate no matter

where the student was, right? That's, you know, what I'm hanging my hat on. So, yeah.

All right. Let me go to the next. Okay. So I think we are at Q&A, actually.

>> Any questions for me and mom?

>> Any questions for me and mom? Do you guys want to ask Chloe something?

Anybody have anything they want to ask Chloe? She'll try to answer.

Yeah. Somebody raised their hand.

I missed the first few minutes, so sorry if you already said this. Will this program

educate her for a specific job? Okay. So one of the things that Next Steps is doing this

time is they are doing career rotations. Like, if you go -- if you have Facebook and you

go look at their page, it will say freshmen career exploration pictures. So Chloe went to

a lot of different job sites. Do you want to talk about that? Tell them where you went.

Her name is Dawn.

>> Oh.

>> What job sites did you go to this semester? Tell her where you went.

>> Susan Gray.

>> Susan Gray School.

>> I don't -- VPD.

>> Yeah, the Vanderbilt University Police Department

>> Owens School.

>> Owens School of Business. That big plant where they make the cars.

>> Nissan.

>> Nissan, she loves Nissan.

>> Don't forget the --

>> And the Tennessee State Capitol. But the idea is for students to learn about

different career clusters and occupations, so when they go to start selecting internships,

and they will start with on-campus internships, that they will have a basis for

preferences. Even a negative preference is a preference, oh, I can't stand the noise

kids make, you know what I mean?

>> And landscaping.

>> Landscaping. They did with the grounds, yeah. So they had a lot of different

career options and things that they visited, and I believe that they will do that next

semester as well.

>> Anymore questions for the wonderful girl that got into Vandy?

>> [Laughter].

>> A couple of questions are coming in by a different method. People are asking

what kind of degree or certificate Chloe will graduate with.

>> She will have a certificate of completion of the Next Steps curriculum, and it's

across four different categories, so they teach students in health and wellness. They

teach them career exploration and secure employment, and they have a -- oh, I wish

Jenny was on, because she knows the exact number. It's somewhere in the range of

80-90% of employment for their graduates. That's an astounding and amazing rate.

We definitely hope Chloe is included in that when she graduates.

Yeah, Jenny raised her hand. Hi, Jenny.

>> Hi, Jenny.

>> So but it is very high, their employment rate of students that graduate the

program.

>> Awesome.

>> 91%.

>> 91, yay! Thanks Jenny.

>> Hi, Jenny.

>> I'm afraid we have to start wrapping up, because we did say 5:00 was our end

time. For anyone who asked a question that didn't get answered, I will pass it along to

Jennifer and Chloe, and they can contact you.

I also want to of course thank Jennifer and Chloe for being with us today, and for

all of you for attending. I don't know if the person who has a hand raised -- that was

Jenny.

>> That was Jenny.

>> So, just so you know, there will be the recording of the webinar and the

PowerPoint will be posted on our website, and Jennifer can say good-bye. I'm going to

put this poll up on the screen quickly, if you wouldn't mind answering three quick

questions for us about today's webinar. It would just help us in programming in the

future.

So, Jennifer and Chloe, if you want to say anything in closing, I am sure people

would love to hear from you.

>> Go Vandy.

>> Chloe says go Vandy. She loves it. Just words of encouragement, you guys.

Certainly I'll put the last slide up that has Include Me. I did that so parents can email me

specifically if they have a concern or a question.

>> They can always email me too if they have concerns or questions.

>> You can email Chloe if your student wants to talk to her.

>> We are open.

>> We are open. Our doors are always open.

>> I'm proud to be a Vanderbilt student, and you're proud to be a Vanderbilt

mom.

>> I'm very proud to be a Vanderbilt mom. I can't tell you guys. I really can't.

>> How amazing it is.

>> It was worth the four years. It was worth every argument in an IEP meeting.

It was worth all of it.

>> But, you know what, we did it.

>> And here we are in Nashville. We did it.

>> Hooray! Yea!

>> Here in flip-flops. [Laughter].

>> I think we should celebrate with a movie.

>> Oh, we should celebrate with a movie.

>> That sounds great.

>> She's trying to make a date with me. I told you she's social.

>> Chloe, thank you so much for being on this webinar today. We really

appreciate your time, and of course Jennifer, the time that you took to prepare and

make yourself available to people. Again, this information will be available on our

website. I understand there was a little bit confusion about what platform we were using

today. I'm sorry about that. Hopefully we will hear from Chloe and Jennifer in the

future. Thanks everyone.

>> Thanks everyone.

>> Thanks everyone. Go Vanderbilt, bye!

>> Bye-bye.

(End of captioning.)