Emma Dodici never wanted to miss school on Mondays.
She was enrolled in the Career Skills at Cornell program for students with intellectual disabilities at Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services (TST-BOCES), and she spent Monday mornings with a group of Cornell students who were her friends.
“If we had something going on on Mondays, she’d say: ‘No, that’s when we go to Cornell,’” said Beverly Dodici, Emma’s mother. “Having neurotypical peers who made her feel like she was a part of the community – it really built her confidence and self-esteem.”
Emma, who has Down syndrome, graduated from TST-BOCES last year and is living independently at Otsego Academy in Edmeston, New York. The Cornell students who befriended her are members of the TST-BOCES Career Skills Club, a student-run group supported by the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement. The club works with TST-BOCES students with intellectual disabilities, such as Down syndrome or autism, to develop communication and life skills, and a sense of curiosity and confidence, that help them as they transition out of school.
The program is part of a larger relationship between the TST-BOCES work readiness program and Cornell. The BOCES students spend Friday mornings with students and staff from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and three mornings a week working various jobs at the Statler Hotel. For their time, the BOCES students, all aged 16 to 22, receive credit toward their Career Development and Occupational Studies credential, which recognizes a student’s ability to enter the workforce.
“It’s imperative that we think about the futures for these students, because many of them are going to be on a different path,” said Helen Staller, a special education teacher at TST-BOCES. “If we can get them set before they’re done with high school, if we can make some of those connections and put that image of the future in their minds, then we can build that bridge – that’s why the class the Cornell students run on Mondays is so important.”
