CUNY Unlimited FIG No. 4 (May 13th, 2022)
After introductions and news from members, we briefly discussed the FIG’s 4 presentations during KCC’s successful DAWS week in April! Stella Woodroffe Director of Accessibility thanked the FIG for our contributions/ presentations.
We also made progress with plans for an education certificate / focus for MRHEP students. The Education Program Director Denise Farrelly is supportive of the idea as is Kensaku Matsuda MRHEP administrator. Further dialogue is needed with the CUNY Central as to whether this can be made a formal CUNY Unlimited ‘Education’ focus certificate.
It was suggested that between 6- 8 of the 16 courses the MRHEP students who are interested in a career in education take, be Education courses. A field course and placement in an educational setting would be a requirement in the last of the 4 years. Some MRHEP students may not have an idea as to what their career path may be when entering college, so flexibility would be needed with the requirements and the timing. A sequence of courses would however be followed. With a new Special education degree planned at KCC for Fall 2023 this initiative would be welcomed.
We also discussed whether there could be an assigned Education student (or alumni) as a mentor and or a work study program student allocated mentoring a student particularly in the field- working in a school classroom. MRHEP admin. suggested they would be able to pay for the finger printing needed for students to have field experience in a school.
Most importantly we discussed the fact that DOE and day care centers require employees to have a high school diploma. Therefore, once MRHEP students had completed the certificate they may not realistically be able to find employment in an educational setting. Although many MRHEP students may not have a high school diploma, they still have the ability to fully contribute in an educational setting. Further information needs to be acquired as to how other TPSID programs are able to circumnavigate this and also whether State regulations maybe different from City regulations. It was suggested that private schools or arts programs (for example ‘Mommy and me’) may be able to employ a MRHEP graduate without a high school diploma.
To be continued! Thank you for time and interest in this important work.
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