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A Year of Highlights for Students with Disabilities

YEs alum looks at canned goods on a shelf

by Stephanie Gray

Accomplishments from coast to coast! Congratulations to all of the high school exchange students with disabilities who traveled thousands of miles from home to learn, grow, share and contribute in American host communities this year. You now join an active network of alumni of State Department-sponsored youth programs, alumni working towards positive social change every day. We are proud of each and every one of you!

As we prepare to say good-bye to this year’s FLEX, YES and A-SMYLE students with disabilities, here’s a quick review of a few of their many accomplishments this year:

  • Voted Student of the Month at the Tennessee School for the Blind
  • Went adapted surfing at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, with Life Rolls On
  • Rolled to the finish line in a 5K race in Union Grove, Wisconsin
  • Participated in Civic Education Week in Washington, DC, and featured in an award winning photograph at the FDR Memorial
  • Attended Better Understanding for a Better World (BUBW) youth conferences in Orlando, San Diego andBaltimore
  • Played basketball at the Arkansas School for the Deaf and managed a high school volleyball team in Indiana
  • Won 1st place in the Humorous Interpretation category in a speech competition in North Dakota
  • Learned American Sign Language (ASL) and perfected their English
  • Joined American families and made friends for life in nineteen states and the District of Columbia
  • Logged hundreds of hours of community service – at an elementary school, the humane society, an assisted living facility, and a food bank (see photo above), to name a few!

Click below to hear a first hand account on the YES Programs impact on students with disabilities.

Credits: http://www.miusablog.org/


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