Diversity Fellow Project, Brittany Given
Special Education Fact Sheets
Fact sheet: Discipline [download]
Fact sheet: Evaluations [download]
Fact sheet: Preparing for college [download]
Fact sheet: Section 504 [download]
Project Narrative
1. Please describe your activities during your Fellowship experience. Describe your final capstone project(s).
During my Fellowship experience, I observed the following clinics: Next Steps, Speech Language Pathology, Feeding and Swallowing, Attention Deficit Disorder and Autism. I participated in several training, some specifically focused on cultural diversity. I completed two courses: Disabilities and the Family and Life Span Disability. I volunteered at Senior Monongalians, a senior citizen center, and Stepping Stones, a recreational center for people with disabilities. I attended Leadership Seminar sessions and Journal Club meeting. I had the opportunity to network and collaborate with students in other disciplines.
I developed special education fact sheets on evaluations, 504 plans, discipline, and transition planning. The goal of the project was to create helpful resources that are easy to understand and easy to navigate. Additionally, the fact sheets provide information on self-advocacy, rights, and responsibilities to guide families should they encounter obstacles to receiving services.
2. Who did your project inform, help, influence or impact? (UCEDD, individual, community, state) How?
The capstone project will assist students, parents, and families with requesting, accessing, and receiving individualized special education services. The fact sheets also explain how students and parents can address problems. The fact sheets are available as an online resource that can be downloaded from the Center for Excellence in Disabilities’ website.
3. Why did you choose to work on that project(s)?
Having provided advocacy services on behalf of students experiencing difficulty accessing special education programming prior to pursuing my law degree, I recognized the need for parents to understand special education policies and self-advocacy skills.
4. What did you gain from being a Diversity Fellow?
The Fellowship as a whole really emphasized the need for collaboration between agencies and the importance of multidisciplinary teams. Every journal club, leadership seminar, training, and clinic observation was more meaningful and more successful because of the diverse group of individuals and their varying perspectives. The clinicians, students, and other professionals often perceived or processed information differently, and this resulted in the ability to provide more comprehensive services to clients.
This experience underscored the need for affordable legal assistance for people with disabilities. Once I begin practicing, I will focus my pro bono work on serving children and adults with disabilities
6. What are your future goals? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
I plan to graduate in 2018 and hope to be practicing in a civil defense firm.
7. What recommendations do you have for other Fellows?
I would recommend that other Fellows participate in as many different trainings and observations available and to take every opportunity to network and collaborate with the other Fellows.