By the time the spring of senior year comes around, many soon-to-be grads with “senioritis” will tell you they’re eagerly looking forward to graduation day.
But for a certain group of Columbus high school seniors, their first steps into the real world are a bit more delayed, and their high school careers can continue for another three years. Students in the special education transition program are getting out into the real world to learn job skills that will serve them long after graduation.
Such is the case for Grace Williams, 21, a “super senior” at Columbus North High School.
Williams, who’s happily anticipating her graduation from high school, began volunteering at Columbus Regional Health in December as part of the North transition program.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
She’s one of the first of the hospital’s “nontraditional volunteers” — special education students who volunteer for a few hours per week gaining job skills and learning to interact in a professional capacity with customers and patients.
“I love it,” Williams said of her position at the hospital, where she works in the gift shop assisting customers by bagging purchases, straightening and stocking merchandise and greeting visitors.
Her favorite part of the job, by far, she says, is all the people she gets to meet.
This summer, Williams will continue volunteering before she begins her work with Stone Belt, a local agency that aids people with disabilities. She wants to continue working at the hospital and hopes to perhaps get a job at a local restaurant after she graduates.
In just a few months of working at CRH, her teacher and coach, Rex Sharpe, has seen an immense difference in Williams.
“Her self-esteem and self-confidence have grown so much,” said Sharpe, a North special education teacher.
Getting some experience interacting with customers is something students such as Williams don’t usually experience. But just a few hours a week seems to help them open up to possibilities they may not have thought about for themselves, he said.
“They get a desire to want to be employed and more vision of what they can do,” Sharpe said.
The needs of these students happened to coincide with the ongoing needs of filling volunteer spots at CRH.
Mary Hamlin, North transition program coordinator, is charged with helping the super seniors transition into the post-high school world. She helps guide them whether their next steps are for college or job training, work or entering the military.
Rebekah Walsh, the hospital’s director of volunteer services, works with Hamlin to fill spots at the hospital where the students can help and learn some job skills in the process.
“It’s a win-win situation,” said Walsh. “I have more positions than I have volunteers.”
The hospital’s volunteer program encompasses nearly every department of the hospital. Volunteers work in the gift shop, help patients and visitors find their way around the building, check batteries and light bulbs, bring chemotherapy patients lunch and blankets, put together paperwork, scan paper files into electronic files and many more tasks.
Many high school students with special needs are an ideal fit for many of these jobs. The students have the ability to do several kinds of jobs that require rote, repetitive tasks, Walsh said.
“They just need someone to give them a chance,” she added.
Local high schools send other groups of students to do office work that includes putting together files and other tasks not related to working with customers or patients. A total of approximately 10 of these students are currently working at CRH.
Another student from Columbus East High School is volunteering at the hospital doing IT work by scanning documents, doing some photography, electronic medical record transmission and scanning documents.
The student is very quiet, shy and introverted. He goes straight to work when he’s at the hospital without chatting much with co-workers, but one person who recently asked him how he liked his job learned how much of a difference it was making for him.
“He just burst into a big smile,” said Walsh.
We don’t have any clue how he’s feeling most of the time because he’s so quiet, but it’s obvious that he’s enjoying feeling that he has a place and a role at CRH, she said.
Williams also feels that she belongs.
“She takes direction really well. The first time she began working, she would go up to everyone and hug them,” Walsh said, because Williams is naturally such an outgoing and affectionate person.
“I pulled her aside and told her, that when we’re in the hospital, we don’t hug patients, staff or visitors — unless or until you get to know them.”
She learned quickly.
She’s become something of a fixture around the first-floor gift shop on the days she’s there, and visitors can expect to have service with a friendly smile.
“Now, she walks up to everyone and shakes their hands,” said Walsh.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Grace Williams” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Who she is: A Columbus North Super Senior, currently volunteering at Columbus Regional Hospital
Age: 21
Hobbies: meeting new people, making friends and participating in Unified track in shotput and relay races. Her teacher, Rex Sharpe is also her track coach.
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”How to help” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Columbus Regional Hospital is always looking for volunteers.
Volunteers serve in many capacities, including working with patients receiving therapy, helping visitors find their way around the building, visiting patient rooms and waiting areas, doing paperwork and much more.
Volunteers work about 30 hours per year, and schedules are flexible.
To volunteer or learn more, visit crh.org/volunteer or call 812-376-5452.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
