Just a few months ago, a prize box stood nearby a Seneca Valley High School entrance, though currently that space binds so many more.
The box of trophies and a wall behind it were private to make approach for Grounds for Thought, a coffee emporium run by special needs students in a training transition program.
“One of a categorical goals is to boost vocational and amicable skills so they can benefit skills for a workplace,” pronounced Jessica Pyle, transition coordinator for a district.
Such opportunities for special needs students are also being supposing in other internal propagandize districts. Gateway School District has operated Gator Cafe given 2014 and is scheming to enhance a shop. Mars Area School District recently non-stop a tyro store that sells propagandize reserve and suggestion wear by a life skills class. A identical emporium operates in a Upper St. Clair School District.
Grounds for Thought
Seneca Valley’s Grounds for Thought opened in Feb and operates during a initial 3 category durations during a comparison high.
The 28 students who work in a coffee emporium are obliged for everything, including grouping supplies, creation coffee, regulating a income register and cleanup, Ms. Pyle said.
Just as they would for a pursuit outward of school, students practical and went by an talk routine to work in a shop.
“One of a goals is independence,” pronounced Gerald Miller, executive of special preparation in a district. “For special needs students, autonomy is a good priority.”
The district has had work programs in a high propagandize cafeteria and community-based training during participating businesses, though students were not regulating income registers or training to sequence reserve in those programs, Ms. Pyle said.
“The idea is to get a training knowledge so they can build a resume and can benefit rival practice when they graduate,” she said.
The module started with a coffee bar final year in that students delivered coffee to staff via a day, said E.G. Sipp, career growth teacher.
The emporium uses a complement involving sequence forms, machine and tone codes for a income register, Ms. Pyle said.
Hannah Knapp and Anthony Oh, both 17-year-old juniors in a program, pronounced a work is fun.
“I adore it,” pronounced Hannah, who pronounced her favorite pursuit is operative as a barista.
In their initial few days in a shop, a students got some assistance from members of a district’s Best Buddies Club, that matches special needs students with other students to foster loyalty and amicable opportunities for both groups. Since then, a life skills students have been on their possess with some clergyman supervision.
The devise has been a collaborative effort: T-shirts and aprons temperament a emporium trademark were designed by a striking humanities classes; engineering and practical scholarship classes done holders for a sequence forms; a life skills classes refine a emporium uniforms; and a competition was hold to come adult with a name of a shop.
Gator Cafe
At Gateway High School, Gator Cafe in a propagandize library is removing prepared to immigrate and expand.
“We wish to make it be some-more like a sit-in cafe,” clergyman Andrew Estok pronounced of a shop, that sells coffee, cappuccino and prohibited chocolate to students and staff and is run by special needs students in a life skills class.
If a propagandize house approves, a cafeteria will pierce into a classroom space subsequent year, that would yield a incomparable area so that some-more students could work during one time and concede a emporium to also offer cookies and other snacks.
Currently, dual or 3 students work in a cafeteria any duration for 5 durations of a day.
“[The stretched cafe] will concede us to yield some-more opportunities for students,” such as classification cookies and creation coffee, pronounced Mr. Estok, a special preparation clergyman during a high propagandize and one of 4 teachers who manage a cafe. “We competence also do things like iced tea, slushies and bottled drinks like Gatorade.”
The cafeteria is entirely self-sustaining, definition that a income brought in pays to buy reserve and apparatus for a shop.
The school’s parent-teacher classification donated a supports to start a cafe. “We started off with a small $500 and a location,” Mr. Estok said.
The devise is to start converting a classroom into a coffee emporium over a summer with hopes of carrying it open for a 2017-18 propagandize year.
Mars Area’s mobile store
At Mars Area High School, special preparation students in a life skills category are removing real-world knowledge since of assistance from a Mars Planet Foundation.
The substructure supposing seed income to start a tyro store that sells Mars Area sell and propagandize supplies, pronounced William Pettigrew, a propagandize house deputy to a substructure house of directors.
The apparatus are accessible in a gangling classroom and from a transport that students circle into investigate halls.
The students partner with other classes and clubs to make some of a apparatus sole during a store, such as silk-screened T-shirts and bags. They also worked with a promote media category to make a blurb for a shop.
SHOP@USC
At Upper St. Clair High School, SHOP@USC is a student-run business that produces and sells nod cards, signs, laser-engraved apparatus and propagandize suggestion merchandise.
SHOP, that stands for Showing How Opportunity Pays, is a partnership between students in a life skills support module and other students during a school. The devise transposed a nod label try that concerned center schoolers operative with internal businesses since a district wanted to offer special needs students a possibility to be partial of a process, pronounced Michelle Zirngibl, special preparation teacher.
The district performed blurb equipment, and now “SHOP has a ability to create, pattern and fashion all from nod cards to T-shirts and sweatshirts to magnets, stickers and H2O bottles,’’ Ms. Zirngibl said.
The module teaches good occupational skills, though a many critical skills students acquire are “patience, understanding, kindness, compassion, advocacy, honesty, joining and integrity,” she said.
“Those qualities can't be taught though usually emerge when given experience,’’ Ms. Zirngibl said.
Laure Cioffi and Deana Carpenter, freelance writers: suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.