A student and her family are working to create a new program for students with intellectual disabilities.
Ashleigh Robinson, music theater sophomore, her mother, Jennifer Robinson, and her grandmother, Patricia McGarrity, are the brains behind the new program called “Reach for the Stars.”
“Reach for the Stars is a four-year, inclusive program for students with intellectual disabilities,” Jennifer Robinson said. “It will include students living on campus, going to traditional classes and some program classes. It will also include joining clubs and participating in social activities on campus, and, starting their second semester, the students will be able to have internships.”
When Ashleigh Robinson’s youngest sister, Danielle, who has Down syndrome, started researching and picking colleges she wanted to attend, her mother was inspired to investigate different programs that Danielle could be a part of in Oklahoma, Jennifer Robinson said. She quickly found there are more than 250 programs like Reach for the Stars across the United States, but Oklahoma is one of two states that doesn’t have any kind of program for students like Danielle who want to attend college.
The Robinson family plans on modeling the program after a similar one at the College of Charleston in South Carolina called “Reach.”
“My other three children have been able to stay in state to attend college,” Jennifer Robinson said. “Danielle shouldn’t have to go out of state either, and that’s why we’re creating this program.”
When Danielle started high school, the school offered her programs to attend, but her family felt they weren’t the type of programs that offered the things Danielle wanted to do, McGarrity said.
There were special education programs at Ashleigh Robinson’s high school, but they weren’t what she envisioned for her sister, she said.
“When I was in high school, the people I encountered in our special education program went to different programs outside of high school that were all vocational and weren’t any type of education,” Ashleigh Robinson said. “They were just training them for janitorial work or plating food in a restaurant, and I saw so much more in my sister.”
The Robinsons’ current goal is to raise $200,000 so they can fund the program initially. The Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation manages the fund to support Reach for the Stars. Anyone can donate through their website, reachforthestarsok.org.
They worked with academic affairs to create a proposal for the program that will be sent to the academic committees. After that, it will need to be approved by the board of trustees.
“There have been people trying to get a program like this started in Oklahoma for years, but they’ve never been able to make it work” McGarrity said. “But we think OCU is the perfect place for this.”
Once the program is approved, a director will be hired and fundraising will need to occur, Ashleigh Robinson said.
“With programs like this, the general population starts wanting to help and embrace the people and their abilities, rather than dwelling on their disabilities,” McGarrity said.
The Robinson family thinks that Reach for the Stars will not only benefit the students who participate in it, but the students who already attend OCU as well.
“Danielle talks all the time about wanting to be a businesswoman and wants to open her own nursery out of her home, and even being a music theater major and getting a business degree at the same time,” Ashleigh Robinson said.
“She’s just so ambitious and she has the similar drive that I had in high school, and, in the end, I just want her to have the same opportunities because I think she deserves that.”
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