Inside the Yellow Door Newsletter – Spring-Summer 2019

Behind Yellow Doorthe

Providing a Safe Haven and a Path to Hope

Building Lifelong Skills: Enjoying Life

Students tend to arrive at the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School (O-School) after many therapeutic interventions, hospitalizations, and a variety of school placements. This can often lead to students experiencing life from the perspective of a diagnosis, which can effectively sideline their identities as students and lifelong learners. At the O-School, we work to rebuild our students’ identities and self-confidence by focusing on their strengths, and we encourage them, while they have skilled guides at their

“Lifelong learning extends far beyond the classroom.”

sides, to take risks outside the class room setting as well. “Lifelong learning extends far beyond the classroom,” says Diana Kon, Ed.D., co-executive director for the O-School. “It speaks to how you approach life, how you engage with others, and how you look to try new experiences. It involves expanding your own world view.”

At the O-School, students have many learning opportunities outside the classroom including participating in job readiness workshops, visiting college campuses, learning how to use public transportation, attending community events, and getting a first-hand look at how local businesses operate. At the O-School, students’ birthdays are celebrated, holidays are revered, and just like for students everywhere, prom is a jubilant milestone.

Pete Myers, Psy.D., co-executive

director of the O-School, notes that nurturing self-esteem in students is critical to building well-adjusted adults and involves providing the right activ ities. “Self-esteem is vital to how well people manage their lives. Having suc cesses in a variety of ways while doing challenging activities and experiences are fundamental to building positive self-esteem,” Myers says. “At the O-School, we want all of our students to have a chance to have a variety of experiences so they can enjoy life and

“Self-esteem is vital to how well people manage their lives.”

Student Updates/Stories

O-School Program Prepares Students to Find & Secure Jobs

The O-School Transition Department recently launched the Job Readiness Training (JRT) program for juniors and seniors. The program is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue, secure, and maintain competitive employment. As part of the program, students participate in workshops and receive focused instruction and training in key areas, including the importance of soft skills in the workplace, identifying strengths and weaknesses, creating resumes, developing

a personal “elevator speech,” networking, conducting job searches, completing job applications, and interview preparation.

Carmen Roberts, director of Transitional Services and Programs, described the importance of the program for students. “Becoming job ready is an important part of the transition process. JRT helps students acquire the skills necessary to move from a learning environment to a working environment and self-sufficiency.”

Students Learn About Benefits of Public Transportation

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nowing how to use public transportation is often the key to independence and personal freedom. For that reason, the O-School hosted a workshop this spring provided by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Pace Suburban Bus (PACE).

The CTA operates the nation’s second largest public transpor tation system and covers Chicago and 35 surrounding suburbs. On an average weekday, approximately 1.6 million rides are taken on the CTA. Serving the Chicagoland area, PACE is the nation’s premier suburban transit provider, safely and efficiently moving people to work, school, and other regional destinations.

The workshop included classroom instruction and an over view of the regional transportation system, including Metra, CTA, PACE, the Ventra payment system, and route mapping. Students also got to ride a fixed-route bus and learned about safety, accessibility, and more.

O-School Students Finish Strong in International Poetry Slam

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hout out and congratulations to the O-School team for its valiant effort at this spring’s quarterfinals of the Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) poetry festival in Chicago! The team placed a very close fourth in the quarterfinals behind three exceptional teams. O-School LTAB Team Co-Coach Michelle Pegram notes, “This was only our second year in the competition, and our students’ talent and hard work carried us to the quarterfinals. Not only was it an amazing experience to compete at that level, but we learned so much from watching the experienced teams. We are so proud of our students.”

LTAB, the world’s largest youth poetry festival, lasted five weeks, ending on March 17. At the event, 120 teams from high schools, middle schools, and community organizations competed in slam-style poetry bouts. The O-School LTAB five-student team ranked in the top 32 teams out of 120 and advanced to the quarterfinals after winning the first round and placing third in the second bout. The O-School LTAB team ultimately finished in the top quarter of teams at the world’s largest youth poetry festival—a fantastic feat indeed!

College Visit Gives Students Real View of Campus Life

O-School students visited the campus of Roosevelt University, located in downtown Chicago. The tour was part of an initiative to give students an up-close look at colleges and universities so they could see and experience life on campus.

During the visit, students received information and pre sentations on the differences between high school and college. They also learned how to access college disability services and were given an overview of the

accommodations Roosevelt provides for its students.

The visit included a student-led tour of Roosevelt’s 32-story vertical campus, the Wabash Building, which is the second-tallest higher-education building in the United States. The tour was followed by a panel discus sion comprised of current Roosevelt student leaders with disabilities.

The O-School is planning more college tours for this upcoming school year.

Prom

the

came dressed

impress for this year’s prom “Gardens

the

parents and staff were all smiles during the fun-filled event.

Learning

learning at the O-School

in and outside of the

out

Spring Music Concert

out a clip from the O-School spring music concert

this past spring. The

O-School Admissions Director & Principal Present at UCLA

This past spring, the O-School was represented well at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). O-School Director of Admission Kristin Friesen and Principal Michelle Zarilli presented at the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA in April.

Friesen and Zarrilli each met and spoke to the clinical/psychiatric team on the hospital’s adolescent inpatient unit to educate them about O-School programs and services. The O-School has served several students and their families from California over the past 15 years.

“It was a valuable opportunity to educate the staff about what makes the O-School unique and how we can be of service to their patients and families in the future,” says Friesen. “We look forward to building a continuing partnership with the Resnick Hospital.”

Building Lifelong Skills: Enjoying Life

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gain from their successes—just like their peers across the country.”

Many students become overly focused on testing. They stop enjoying learning. “We try to catch them before that spark of enjoy ment in learning goes out,” Kon says. “We try to ignite that spark and fully engage them in the learning process. Learning is not limited to one test or one class room.”

By blending intensive therapeutic services, an ambitious curriculum, and a wide range of experiences outside the classroom for students to explore their interests, the O-School strives to remove barriers. Currently, more than 90% of O-School graduates go on to college.

“For so many of our students— and their families—mental health and the needs surrounding mental health, tend to take center stage, clouding out some of the typical experiences that they could other wise engage in,” Kon says. “Some times by the time students come to the O-School, addressing their mental health needs becomes the primary focus, and they become less open to taking risks. They start to internalize feelings of ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘those activities aren’t for me.’ By making sure our students have access to the same experiences other children have, we help them reassess and rebuild their identities in a very fundamental way.”

Introducing This Year’s O-School Gala Keynote Speaker

Each year, the O-School hosts a gala to raise critical funds in support of the school’s therapeutic and educational programs. This year’s gala will be held on November 2, 2019, and will feature Liesl Shurtliff as our keynote speaker. Liesl is the New York Times bestselling author of the (Fairly) True Tales series and the Time Castaways series. Books in her (Fairly) True series have been named to over two dozen state award lists, including being an Illinois Read’s selection, and have won a Children’s Book Award from the International Literacy Association. A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Shurtliff has called Chicago home for 15 years. She and her husband have four children who have inspired many characters in her books, both hero and villain. We look forward to welcoming Liesl into our community and learning from her experiences.

Former O-School Director

Jacqui Sanders, Ph.D., to be honored at Gala

We are also pleased to announce that at this year’s gala we will be honoring Jacqui Sanders, Ph.D. Sanders began working at the O-School in 1952 as a dormitory counselor and later became assistant principal until 1965. In 1972, she returned to serve as the director of the O-School until retiring in 1992. While overseeing the school, Sanders held appointments at the University of Chicago’s Department of Ed ucation and Psychiatry and was president of the American Association of Children’s Residential Treatment Center, where she worked to ensure all children in residential treatment received the high quality of care for which the O-School is renowned.

Mark Your Calendars for Our 3rd Annual Yellow Door Benefit Gala!

The event is being held in support of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School (O-School) on Saturday, November 2, at the Glen Club, 2901 W Lake Avenue, Glenview, IL. Invitations will be arriving soon. We hope to see you there!

For more information, please contact: Tim Hammerly at 773-420-2895 or at thammerly@oschool.org

SPRING/SUMMER2019