Council for Exceptional Children members attend the first meeting of the student organization since its reforming. Attendees include: Megan Myers, Addison Stavos, Cassandra Foytic, Alyssa Fredrick, Bishesta Karanjit and So-Young Lee.
The CEC campus chapter held its first meeting this January and will host more than 400 people March 27 on campus for Taste of Transition, an event designed to connect teachers with vendors and services for students with disabilities transitioning out of high school.
Taste of Transition
3-6 p.m. March 27
Atwood Memorial Center
Interested in volunteering?
Contact Megan Myers at [email protected]
The event will allow teachers and administrators to meet vendors and services, so they can know what options are available for their students who are transitioning out of high school.
CEC members are working with the local Community Transition and Interagency Committee, which provides services for students ages 18-22 with moderate to severe disabilities to help them move into independent living, employment or post-high school pursuits.
Club President Megan Myers has led the charge to get the CEC club reinstated. She worked with Assistant Professor Brian Valentini and other members to write a constitution and recruit active members.
The goal for the organization is to build a foundation for the student involvement and allow students to connect with one another. The organization will also serve as a resource for alumni.
Taste of Transitions and the reboot of CEC is thanks in part to the School of Education’s Equity Fellowship program.
The Equity Fellowship was created this year to promote the School of Education’s goal of promoting educational equity. The program supports faculty efforts to develop projects to further equity, inclusivity, anti-bias and diversity. The Fellowship comes with up to $1,000 funding to support the project.
When Valentini heard about the Equity Fellowship he knew the Council for Exceptional Children group would be a great project for the Fellowship.
“The disability population historically has been marginalized like other populations in our society,” he said. “For a long time people with disabilities were excluded from education and schools. Some of that still continues today with employment and independent living options. … I think special education is one of the many trends of a lack of equity in our field.”
Valentini has been teaching at St. Cloud State since 2018. He is the first School of Education Equity Fellow. Restarting the CEC chapter has been a goal of his since he arrived on campus because he wants to encourage more teachers to work with students with disabilities.
“This has been a passion of mine for 15 years now,” he said of serving people with disabilities. “What drives me is just how disadvantaged this popula
tion is and how unfair some of the life outcomes are for this population.”
Myers heard Valentini talking about the club during a Summer Sessions class and was excited to restart the chapter, not only for special education students, but for anyone who will work in fields serving the population.
The club is open to students from any major who believe they will interact with exceptional children in their future career, Myers said.
Future events held by the CEC will focus on exceptional children at other age groups, but the club wanted to start with the 18-22 age group because those students are the same age as most CEC members.
“We’re that age,” she said. “We can use our experiences to provide input on things that we want and that other students may want as well.”
Eventually the student organization will host classroom tours, volunteer at event sand for the Special Olympics, invite speakers to meetings, and host fun events, she said.
Valentini is excited to see what the students will do and how they will grow the club.
“How fun is it that we as teachers get to work with future teachers that will be working with this population and can literally change these people’s lives for the better,” he said.
