I think the skill that we mainly want to see in students
is that they have to be interested in learning and interested in being a student.
You know, many students finish high school and, you know, they don’t want to be in school anymore.
And so, coming to a postsecondary program probably doesn’t make much sense for them.
The students who do well in our program are interested in learning.
They are interested in being in classrooms and being a student.
They’re also interested in engaging with other students.
Safety skills are probably the most important thing. We have a big campus
and, you know, so students should be able to cross the street independently. They should be able to kind of
call or text for assistance if they run into a problem.
We do ask them to keep a schedule but we provide support and assistance for the schedules.
Most of our students keep their schedule on an iPad,
which is a little different than what they might have been used to doing in high school.
Primarily we are looking for students who are motivated to come to college.
We find that those students have the best success.
We are also looking for students who are interested in furthering their
career skills and their independent living skills.
We have found that students who can read at least on a first or second grade level,
are able to participate in college classes and some of the other activities on campus.
We also are looking for students who do have some functional communication skills
and are able to communicate safely in a college environment.
They also need to be individuals who have a strong desire to go to college
and to learn job skills and skills of independence.
The students need to have their own means to getting to and from the university.
If they are not able to live on campus they need to have health insurance.
It’s also, as you can imagine, very important that they have some mode of communication.
That doesn’t mean that they all have to be verbal, but we have to have a way to communicate
and keep them safe, but also make sure that they’re learning.