The African American Cultural & Resource Center Transitions Program was a year-long mentorship program aimed to cultivate and maintain a sense of community among incoming Black students at UC. In the program, we met weekly to discuss professional, social, and academic wellbeing, and were provided with skills and resources to make the best out of our freshman year and overall collegiate experience. The photos at the left show some images from one of the big events that the AACRC hosts annually - Kuamka. Kuamka is a Swahili word that translates to “In the beginning.” The ceremony aims to highlight the academic and professional excellence of Black students at UC, including the traditional Rite of Passage that the Transitions students go through, the Kujifunza Ceremony that recognizes academic achievement, and the crowning of Mr. and Ms. Kuamka after a week-long showcase of their talent, platform, and Q&A. For the Transition students, we performed a Unity Dance, elected a member of our cohort to “Accept the Charge,” giving a speech on behalf of the goals and ambitions we set for ourselves as a class, and engaged with “Take the Light,” where each of us passed along a flame as we heard from our Faculty Advisor as she spoke to us. This event is one that highlighted the work that we had done throughout the year, building our skills and involvements with community service, academics, and personal & professional development. Through this experience, I was able to engage with a community of peers, mentors, and faculty that shared mutual care for each others’ wellbeing. I was able to grow alongside my peers, and I believe that we have established a network of people who will continue to support each other as we each become campus and community leaders. 

When considering the engagement with social media and digital communication applications of young adults with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD), it is clear that disparities and barriers exist in the accessibility of these resources. In the past, research has been conducted with the goal of presenting Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) options through the use of such technological resources for individuals with IDD, but only under the scope of general communication and their ability to express basic needs. However, UC’s IMPACT Innovation and CEES programs aim to pursue further by creating means for individuals with IDD to better express beyond basic needs, and delve deeper into communicating with the intent of building relationships with family, friends, and staff, as well as to establish new relationships. Working as a student researcher with IMPACT Innovation and CEES, I was able to work with adults and high school students with IDD to use AAC devices in order to ultimately improve upon accessibility with digital communication applications. One of my biggest takeaways from this experience is that the lack of representation of people with both intellectual and physical disability has a direct link to technology being inaccessible. Moving forward in my own career in tech, I wish to see a more inclusive future where we are being more conscious with whom we consider consumers when we claim innovation is to make life easier.