On Tuesday, June 23, the Life Skills program held their graduation ceremony. Once they are finished with their senior year, this special ceremony honors the graduates for all their hard work, and celebrates their promotion to our Transition Training Center (TTC). In the program, students work on functional academics and developing life skills and vocational skills. During their time here, they became more immersed in the community, and work on social and vocational job skills to help prepare them for their adult life. This year, there were six students graduating from the program.
After the age of 21, the students move on from the TTC and are able to access programs to support their adult life. Catherine Sisk, the transition coordinator, said of the ceremony: “This is just a really lovely program to help honor our students in a more intimate manner for all that they’ve done. All six of the students that you saw today have met their graduation requirements.”
During the graduation ceremony, students were able to speak about their peers as they received awards for fields they excelled in. There was an award for Excelling in Unified Vikings and Academic Improvement. The Unified program is a mix of special education students and student volunteers. In the programs, they have tennis, basketball, and track and field. Coaches take them out on the court and field to teach them these sports, and student volunteers play alongside them. Mr. Josh Carlani, interim superintendent of special education, spoke about how proud he is because of the success of the program. Principal Peter Varela also spoke to commemorate the hard work and dedication these students have shown.
Because each student has different learning differences, they each have dedicated teachers who work to support them by building a relationship with each student. Ms. Kacy Kelly, who is a transition teacher and Unified Vikings coach, says that she specializes a learning plan for each student by “kind of just getting to know them. Being that I’m a teacher in the program, I have the ability to see and talk to the other staff members as well to figure out where we need to support them more or maybe where we need to lay off a little.”
Student Volunteers work to help students in the Unified Vikings Programs but also to encourage students to keep working hard. Rahim Khan (‘27), a student volunteer, says that his favorite part is “meeting so many fun people and seeing how fast they are during track in Unified Vikings.”
Reese Weintraub (‘27), another volunteer, says “they make me crack up every single time and I just hope for the best for them. Everyone is just so positive 100% of the time, all the time.”
Zayne Mogadati (‘26), who has been a volunteer for the Unified Program for all four years of his high school career, says “It really clings to you. I’ve been doing it since freshman year. The coaches are really good, the kids are really good, and we get to compete with other schools sometimes too, which is also really fun.”
Subal Kaura, a member of the program (and also member of The Viking Vibe), was an attendee of Tuesday’s ceremony. He likes to write about current events and pop culture for The Vibe and wants to think about doing something related to that field in the future. He says that he likes the program and that his favorite part is “getting to lunch early”.
Altogether, the program and the event could not have been possible without the staff and student volunteers. It is important that the hard work these students have put in is celebrated as they move on to the next stage of their education in the TTC.
