STEPing out of the classroom: M-S special-education students get involved in area businesses

Article and Photo by: Emily Jankauski

Kelsie Briggs (left) and Kara Januzik often use ‘the force’ in their daily references to all things Star Wars when Januzik arrives for her hour-long shift at Salon 105, where she sweeps, vacuums and wipes items down as part of the Student Transition Experience Program through Mahomet-Seymour High School.

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Pushing a broom with a smile on her face, Mahomet-Seymour High School student Kara Januzik, 15, meticulously cleans one area and then another in Kelsie Briggs’ hair salon, Salon 105, for one hour, four days a week.

“I’m Kara Vader,” Januzik said as she chuckled. “I have Star Wars nicknames, too. The nickname is fun and silly.”

According to her mother, Florence Januzik, her daughter’s communication skills have proved to be a difficult task given her Down syndrome and a moderate hearing loss.

“She’s always had good fine-motor and gross-motor skills, but because she has a hearing impairment, her speech isn’t always intelligible,” Florence Januzik said. “It’s been more of a struggle for her to make friends and assimilate in some ways.”

Seated nearby, mindfully observing Kara Januzik as she completes each of her tasks, are special-education teacher Justine Hellmer and support services aide Jennifer McDonough.

Kara Januzik’s seeming routine is a culmination of two things. First, her practicing cleaning tasks in the classroom, and second, Mahomet-Seymour High School building relationships with businesses in the community to pair students of different abilities with volunteer or part-time positions through the Student Transition Experience Program (STEP).

“STEP allows them (students in special education) to get various opportunities to gain work experience and also the opportunity to gain those skills by the time they graduate,” said Brian Bajer, support services teacher at the high school. “They are individualized skills, and we have hopes that they develop some of those skills in a community setting.”

For Kara Januzik, it all began with Bajer and Hellmer trying to find a part-time position or volunteer opportunity to meet her skills with a business in the community. Hellmer eventually thought of Salon 105, and soon after, Bajer contacted Briggs to discuss the possibility.

“I didn’t hesitate,” Briggs said. “I think it’s awesome to help her have responsibilities and teach her life skills. I went to Mahomet, and I volunteered for the young adults program (another aspect of Mahomet-Seymour’s special-education department), and so when Brian reached out to me, that’s why I was so excited, because I had a little bit of background in it.”

Each day, Kara Januzik comes to work and checks off multiple cleaning tasks from her list that McDonough carries with her, such as wiping furniture down, cleaning the restroom and Kara Januzik’s personal favorite — sweeping.

“I like the vacuum,” Kara Januzik said referring to how she sweeps the dirt into the nearby standing vacuum.

Bajer, Hellmer and McDonough agree that Kara Januzik is nearly ready to perform the tasks without the guidance of her support services aide.

“I pretty much observe anyway,” McDonough said. “She’s really great at just doing it.”
This is the goal of the STEP program: To have students learn an individualized skill, learn the routine of performing the skill in a community environment with assistance of an aide and eventually becoming self-sufficient in performing the task in the community setting.

“Kara is almost an ambassador for our program,” Bajer said. “She’s gone into this situation with a huge smile on her face. She’s taken it head on. She comes in happy and ready to do her job well each and every day.”

The sophomore student honed her cleaning skills through routine efforts made in the classroom with Hellmer, where she assists with laundry, vacuuming and wiping tables.

“She does cleaning jobs in the classroom, too, so that way she’s not just doing it here (Salon 105) and she’s able to do it across multiple environments,” Hellmer said. “Eventually, by the time she graduates, she can come here by herself. The goal is that Kara would check her list and Kelsie would have it on her own.”

Though she thinks it may be too soon to tell how this position will impact Kara Januzik overall, Florence Januzik said she is pleased to see her daughter not only working in such an environment, but also thriving in the community.

“I’m really excited that Salon 105 wanted to participate in the program,” Florence Januzik said.

“One underlying thing she loves is being around people and being social. I think this environment allows her to do that while contributing something to the salon.”

While Kara Januzik is heavily involved in Special Olympics, such as basketball, bocce ball, gymnastics and volleyball, Florence Janzuik said the opportunity to have her daughter interacting with others in the community is an opportunity unlike any other.

“I think that it helps her feel important and validated in a lot of ways to have a useful contribution that she’s making,” she said. “To know people outside of her family and be supported by friends and people outside of the community. I think one of the things Kara struggles with the most is she’s a very social person, but she’s doesn’t always have all of her communication skills mastered.

“The opportunity to have dialogues and put into play what she’s worked on for so long with her speech therapist and her social workers,” Florence Januzik added. “It puts the real-life experience on those skills that she’s developing.”

Hoping to provide similar experiences, both for his students and for businesses in the community, Bajer expressed his desire to expand the STEP program with Mahomet-area businesses. Though he currently has nearly six business participants, the Mahomet-area community appears as a viable option for program expansion with the ever-growing 200-plus members in the Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce.

“We hope to develop some of these community settings,” Bajer said. “We want to reach out to businesses and the community, but we are struggling to find more businesses.”
Realizing the importance of his task, Bajer shared how much the volunteer and part-time work experiences mean to his students.

“This is very important for their education and their experiences later in life. A lot of these students need some support and this gives the opportunity to have the support,” Bajer said. “It allows them the opportunity to learn and it gives them the experience and confidence to say, ‘Yeah, I can do this. I’ve had this experience before and I know that I can maintain part-time work.'”

Bajer said one of his students in the STEP program is close to turning a volunteer opportunity into a part-time position. The experience for this student means the world to him and it provides an opportunity for him to secure his future in the Mahomet community.

“Just seeing his face light up and the confidence he’s built,” Bajer said. “It can be really life-changing for some of our students in this building.”

On average, Bajer said he has roughly 18 to 20 students in the STEP program each year. Going forward, he would like to secure opportunities for each student.

“Getting a wide variety of businesses and work experiences for these students is super important,” Bajer said. “They have different interests and different abilities. If you have any questions or want to speak to me one-on-one, then I am more than willing to meet with you. We’re almost always willing to bring someone onto a job and build those relationships.”

Realizing businesses may be hesitant to partner with the STEP program, Bajer said he wants Mahomet-area businesses to know that he is here to equally support both the business and the student.

“We want it to be not only a good experience for the student, but also the business,” Bajer said.

“We’re not going to put a student in a work site that they are not ready for.”

As for Briggs, having Kara Januzik work at her salon has been a positive experience. Briggs said Kara Januzik is a great fit for her salon and that she does an “awesome” job.

“She can fold towels better than I can fold towels,” Briggs said.

For Briggs, bringing Kara Januzik on to her team was a no-brainer.

“I have clients who have kids with disabilities,” she said. “They’re just like us.”

The opportunity to work in the community at Salon 105 for Kara Januzik is simply one piece to the puzzle in terms of her future. Beaming with pride, Florence Januzik said she wants her daughter to know how great of a job she is doing with maintaining her work, listening skills and responsibilities.

For Florence Januzik, as it seems with all parents, she hopes programs such as STEP prepare her daughter for adulthood, but at the same time, she hopes the experience provides her with a little time to “have fun.”

“I’d love for her to have friends, to live as independently as she can, to have a community of both peers and support. To live her life to the fullest,” Florence Januzik said. “I just want her to be as independent as she can be. I want what most parents want — I want her to be happy.”