A Recap on Disabilities Awareness Week

Hey everyone!

Jacob here! Although I'm sure I could spin the tales of an uneventful weekend into something exciting for you folks, I figured I'd do something pertinent to the project and talk about how our event, the Disabilities Awareness Week, went!

Quite a snazzy poster, isn't it?

The first event, the Disabled for a Day scavenger hunt, unfortunately fell on a cold, and later rainy, day.  However, the participants we managed to wrangle together ventured out bravely into the messy weather with enthusiasm!  Not only did they succeed (for the most part), they learned about the issues that arise when trying to navigate something as big as a college campus with a disability.

The next day saw our project hosting a discussion panel with some of the students with disabilities from the Vandy student body.  Although it was a smaller crowd, we still learned a great deal from the discussion! The students each shared their stories, and answered questions about their experiences on campus.  It was definitely an eye opening event, and everyone who wasn't there missed out on a great time!

The third day saw us giving the mic over to the Next Step program here at Vanderbilt to let them explain what exactly it is that they do. Not only did we get the opportunity to hear from one of the administrators about the specifics of the program, which provides post-secondary education opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities, but we also got to hear from a couple of students about their own experiences within the program! For more information, you go can follow that handy little link up there!

Finally, we capped off the week with our Pie A Professor fundraiser, to raise money for the ChairScholars Foundation.  In total, we managed to raise over $400 thanks to the support of both the student body and the families of the volunteers who came out to join us (and revel in the chance to pie their loved ones in the face).  In spite of the cold and Daylight Savings Time bringing the lights down a bit earlier than we'd wanted, it was a fantastic experience, with near-constant smiles abound.  Some photos of all our shenanigans can be found here at our Facebook page, but I'll leave you with my favorite out of them!

Sam really wanted to be pied. And so she asked a total stranger to do it!

That's all for now!  Thanks for reading this massive wall of text!

Jacob