Disability Support Resources

First Taste of Higher Education 

Navigating higher education as a professional rather than a student. 

I entered higher education last fall 2023. I was late in applying to the CSAL program, so I was late to finding an assistantship for the school year. Fortunately enough, in midsummer 2023 Jason Osborne from Grand Valley's Disability Support Resources (DSR) had reached out to me inquiring about joining their office for the year. I gladly responded, interviewed, and was blessed with an assistantship for the year. I started that August under my supervisor, Tim Mohnkern. Tim is currently the Assistant Director for DSR and is a phenomenal guy. He welcomed me from day one and trusted my skills and education to that point in time to lead projects, workshops, and one-on-one student meetings that year. I appreciate the trust he had in me because I believe it allowed me to grow as a professional more than I would've should he not given me such responsibility immediately.

My year in DSR equipped and developed many of my education related skills, but also my skills and ability to work with students with disabilities. Students registered with DSR all have some form of disability. The ADA defines disability as any "impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities"; I had that memorized by week two I think. This can be mental, emotional, physical, chronic and/or permanent, or temporary. I would work with students who may have ADD, to student-athletes who got a concussion and just needed assistance for a week or two. I was very fortunate to work with students with autism as well, whether in a one-on-one setting or through the program Campus LINKS. All of the work was very rewarding. 

My primary responsibility within DSR was as a Learning Skills Specialist. In this role, any student registered within DSR could schedule a one-on-one meeting with me to help provide academic assistance in context of their disability. Having trouble with reading comprehension? Come on in. Struggling to take effective notes efficiently in class or from a textbook? Not a problem. Need new study methods or strategies to manage time better? Perfect, see you soon. These appointments were all about the student. Once the student arrived, we'd get acquainted (or catch up if the student regularly scheduled with me) and we'd figure out where they wanted the meeting to go. I had created a meeting summary form to help guide our appointments you can find at the bottom of the page. Luckily, I was able to collaborate with various departments on campus such as the Tutoring Center and Student Academic Success Center. Collaboration with them gave me new ideas and resources to use with my students. The main priority was to discuss previous experiences the student has had and where they're struggling and then develop unique strategies tailored to their disability and needs to aid their academic performance moving forward.

Another task of mine in DSR was creating and conducting monthly academic skills workshops. The four skills I presented workshops on were Time Management, Note Taking, Paper Writing, and Studying and took place over Zoom in the evenings for student convenience. Talking with Tim, we created a plan on what workshops to do at different times in the semester. For example, I hosted Time Management first, right away in the semester. The logic behind the timing was this is when time management skills need to be equipped, developed, and implemented. It's the start of the semester, students are getting their syllabi, and quality foundational time management skills becoming habitual are important to start the semester off strong. Creating these workshops, I would consider various aspects of each skill aspects that I perceived as usually needing fine-tuned or developed (i.e. daily time management). From there, the workshops looked at various components of each skill, provided and explained ideas on how to improve upon that skill, ways to implement that skill, and then the floor was open for questions. The workshops were kept incredibly laid back. I knew students didn't want to spend another hour of their day, let alone evening, on academic work so I tried to keep it casual while still maintaining progress toward the goal of the evening. In every instance, I think I was able to do just that and it was evidently appreciated for my "regulars" to the workshops. 

Though I don't intend to work in disability services in higher education, this graduate assistantship provided me a plethora of transferrable skills pertaining to working with this student population. I am very thankful to Tim Mohnkern and Shontaye Witcher for providing me such an opportunity for the year and I look forward to connecting with them through my new role in the LAKER Academic Success Center when fit.