Hello again! Today was my last day at my internship. It’s quite shocking how time has passed by so quickly. My day was as ordinary as any other day on the job, but one thing that was different was my mentality. I wanted to give today my very all.
As I instructed my regular morning class, things were a little different. Over the couple weeks, I have actually been training a very high-functioning student, Kyle. MaryAnn hopes that he himself can become an instructor eventually and I was in charge of getting him there.
Whenever we had these sessions, both Kyle and I worked with Andy.
Kyle needed to understand a few things about Andy before working with him: Andy’s OCD, his wandering eyes, and his issue with not staying inside his workspace. I then had to explain he will need to have a background of each of his students in the future because it directly correlated with how he was going to teach them.
After listening to me, Kyle took in everything and before he gives any instructions to Andy, he makes sure that Andy and he make firm eye contact. Kyle still has a little problem with keeping Andy on task when they’re not working for long periods of time and rather doing small tasks.
However all in all, I know that Kyle will make a great instructor one day.
Like any final day on a project, I began to reflect on what I learned over the past couple months. For three days a week, I saw this amazing, thriving community of hard-working individuals. Constantly learning and totally capable. However, once they step out into the world, they suddenly lose their independent light and live in the shadows. I find that the gap between them and society is not that large. They need support from people like MaryAnn, who see that they can improve and live a fulfilling life.
Every time a student here learns a new technique in jewelry or in welding, they are able to create high-quality products. These products are then bought by customers and sold to people in the outside community. The students take in pride that they were able to create something beautiful and “good enough” to be put up for sale in a show. And isn’t this sense of pride we all look for in life? To have accomplished something after hard work?
As the frequency of autism increases, the support for these individuals must do the same.
Thank you for following along with me for my senior research project!
Grace
It sounds like you had a very rewarding time at your internship! I can't wait to see your presentation!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful way to end a very heartfelt and heartwarming project, I am truly inspired to be a better person, as well as find that sense of pride that you helped those students find.
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