Learning Services Sharpening Skills, Focusing Abilities, Empowering the Human Person By Nicole Patterson ONE OF MOUNT ST. MARY’S DISTINGUISHING FEATURES is its emphasis on principles of Catholic Social Teaching including human dignity—an understanding of the sacred dignity that each person is “fearfully and wonderfully made” in the likeness of Christ. The moral measure of our institution is to what degree it enhances the life of the human person. The Department of Learning Services offers a variety of programs designed to help students succeed academically. What started in the mid-1970s as a resource to assist a professor’s child with autism has grown to include programs like disability services, peer tutoring and Summit Scholars. Learning Services supports students on their academic journey. “Everyone is truly welcome here. It doesn’t matter who you are. God put you on this Earth and you as a person are worthy of being who you are and who you want to be,” says Jane Hollabaugh, administrative assistant in Learning Services. “We’re going to accept you and love you just because you’re you.” Hollabaugh, who graduated from St. Joseph College in the Class of 1975, has worked at the Mount for nearly 25 years. A sign posted outside her office door reads: Peace to all who enter here.
DISABILITY SERVICES As times have changed, and she reminisces about driving her 1958 Dodge Coronet with fins and a push button transmission, she has seen Learning Services transform and expand to include student accommodation letters, changes to the law, testing and diagnoses to name a few. The individualized and confidential services students receive are a testament to the Learning Services team, Mount faculty members and, of course, the students themselves. In accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first disability civil rights law to be enacted in the United States, discrimination is prohibited against people with disabilities in programs that receive federal financial assistance. That law set the stage for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 2008, the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), signed into law by President George W. Bush, allowed for a broader legal definition of “disability” and provided greater protections against discrimination under the law. “We have graduated students with Tourette’s Syndrome, students with autism, students with attention deficit disorder,
Meet the Staff
JANE HOLLABAUGH ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
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FEATURE FALL 2021
DENISE MARJARUM DIRECTOR OF LEARNING SERVICES
