MOUNT VERNON – For most high school seniors graduation opens the door to higher education, employment or military service.
For others, that door doesn’t open easily. Some soon-to-be-graduates have special needs or disabilities that have prevented development of the life skills needed to live independently.
Transition U offers an alternative path for those seniors.
“Our Transition U program is structured specifically to help young people gain the skills needed to pursue productive and rewarding lives,” said Joe Mazzari, director of the Knox Learning Center on Mount Vernon’s west side.
”We can meet with a student, their family and their home school administrators to decide if graduating now is best or if it would be better to defer awarding of a diploma until the student can acquire the skills to live on their own and be gainfully employed.”
Kim Hood directs Transition U.
“Students who enter our program have met all academic and testing requirements for graduation at their home schools,” she said. “Their diplomas are deferred until we determine – along with the students, their parents and home schools – that they are prepared to live independently and secure employment.”
Transition U students learn in the classroom to learn meal preparation, laundry, awareness of current events, personal hygiene and how to manage finances. Four days a week they rotate working at 10 local businesses, where they learn employment responsibility while developing job and social skills.
After morning classroom lessons Transition U students pack their lunches and board a Knox Area Transit bus Monday through Thursday to work at a local business before returning to the Learning Center for afternoon dismissal. Participating businesses provide students the opportunity to develop job skills that include housekeeping, food preparation, landscaping, stocking and assembling.
The program serves Knox County school districts and has welcomed students from surrounding areas, including Clear Fork, Ontario, Highland, Buckeye Valley, Cardington and Granville. Each student’s home district pays the cost of their participation in Transition U.
Four Transition U students graduated last year. Four more will receive deferred diplomas from their home schools on May 17 during a graduation ceremony at The Barn on the Mount Vernon Nazarene University campus.
Transition U students range in age from 17 to 22. Participation may be for a year or two or longer. No one can remain in the program past the semester during which they turn 22.
The Knox Learning Center, an alternative school for students in elementary grades through high school, is located in the former Mount Vernon West Elementary building. It is operated by the Knox Educational Service Center.
For more information about Transition U contact Hood at 740-393-6769 or visit the ESC website at knoxesc.org.