Michael’s Transition: One Student’s Journey to Success
December 23, 2012
Michael Pavilonis is sweet, funny and outgoing. Michael loves to work, too – which is good because in just over two years, Michael will leave Elim’s school, and he and his family need to be ready for the transition.
With the recent adoption of a comprehensive strategic plan, the school leadership team determined to address this continuing need with a complete transitions program, including transition support services for students and their families, plus specialized programs addressing key issues for each student in the program. The result is the Crossroads transitions program, a key accomplishment from the school’s strategic plan.
CORE, a specialized part of Crossroads, was designed and implemented by the transitions staff and is overseen by Jeana Jordan. She is proud of every student in the program but has been amazed at Michael’s progress in just the first few months. “He has made a huge amount of progress in the CORE program since September. Being able to stay focused has been significant. He can work on different data-entry tasks for an average of 45 minutes at a time, and his accuracy has really increased.”
“What I noticed with Michael before was that he didn’t have a really clear understanding of what it meant to be at work. He definitely approaches work more seriously now, more responsibly.”
Michael has expectations placed on him in the Crossroads transitions program, as do all the other students. These expectations not only equip them to rise to the challenges they face each day, but prepare them for life after Elim – hopefully a life that can include some of the office and computer skills they are learning today at Elim.
Jeana has seen that Michael can be productive and accurate in his work. “My hope is that Michael can graduate and get a job in an office environment. Plus, he’s already working in that kind of setting right here at Elim.”
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