Career Skills Institute (CSI) is a program that fosters skills in the areas of self-advocacy, reading and writing, communication, job skills, and on the job training; the end goal is increased quality of life with student independence. Independence has different definitions for different populations and can take many forms. CSI defines independence as the ability of our students to know when to try a daily task on their own, ask for assistance, or work with a partner/team for success. This requires students to have the flexibility to try new things and persist in their efforts.

Most of us have made many adjustments in this unprecedented time and have faced new challenges head on. For our CSI students who sign up for a program to learn a multitude of skills, a celebration of increased independence for our program and individual students is a particular reason to celebrate. Our CSI students have been challenged by e-learning requirements, are tenacious in their efforts with the guidance of the CSI instructors and are showing great student independence in managing this new learning format. These successes build confidence to tackle other challenges and are a reason to celebrate.

These pictures are just 2 examples of the independent efforts to complete class assignments:

This is a guest post by Linda Hoeck. Linda is the coordinator for Harper’s Career Skills Institute since developing the proposal for the program in 2012. Linda holds a Master’s in Education with certifications in special education and educational administration. With over 30 years of experience in education for ages 3 – young adult, Linda has been in the roles of teacher, diagnostician, program principal, autism coordinator, and consultant. The Career Skills Institute instructors are Sharon Basten and Katie Tessendorf. Learn more at ce.harpercollege.edu.