People with intellectual disabilities can learn through CICE

Fanshawe College is opening its doors wider by introducing the Community Integration through Co-operative Education (CICE) program beginning in January 2015.

The two-year program is for students with intellectual disabilities and other learning challenges to attend college and acquire knowledge in an area of interest. Students will graduate with a certificate in CICE.

Robin Frkovic, instructor in the School of Human Services and co-ordinator for CICE has been involved since groundwork was broken over two years ago.

“It’s something I’m very passion about,” she said. “The students, the typical students, the teachers [and] the whole college community benefits from this program.”

Students of CICE choose an academic interest and attend two classes each term and complete three field placements in their two years at Fanshawe.

The students will have learning facilitators who tutor them through the content.

“[The facilitators are] in there learning the content as well,” said Frkovic. “[They] tutor [the students] on the content that was taught that week. And also to assist on any type of assignments, getting them organized and helping them go about researching for a paper.”

After four weeks, learning facilitators will modify learning outcomes for their student, so CICE students won’t earn the same credits as their classmates.

A requirement of the program is to complete field placements, which will be specifically tailored to the student.

“It’s not a generic type of placement,” Frkovic said. “It’s specific for that one student. It’s a very specific job that person will have. [We] set them up for success. It’s a winwin.”

One purpose of CICE is to ensure that not only are students gaining knowledge in a field of interest, but they are also engaged in college life.

“They’ll also be involved in the social aspect of campus,” Frkovic said. “That’s certainly a big part of attending college … that’s the most important part for some students.”

Frkovic says non-CICE students can help with integration.

“If someone comes out and says they are [a CICE student], you can just go out of your way to make sure they’re involved socially,” she said. “Do they have someone to go to lunch with?”

Samantha Germaniuk, a second- year Developmental Services Worker student, said having a program like this is great for high school students who don’t know where to go after graduation.

“[A teacher I know] was quite excited to have a place for her students to go after they’re done high school,” she said. “Some of them can’t read but they have really good work skills and hands-on skills and it’s great they have somewhere to go after to continue with their skills.”

Classmate Zachary Shimla says CICE will allow anyone to go further with his/her education.

“They always feel like they have the bare minimum and they don’t have the chances to reach out for more,” he said. “A program like this would drive people to actually having better jobs in whatever [field] they want.”

Frkovic thinks the program could help break down stereotypes, particularly with autism.

“There’s negative stereotypes out there,” she said. “It’s a good program to create that awareness that a person’s a person first; they’re not a disability.”

“We all have challenges in certain areas. We are much more alike than we are different.”

Students starting in September 2015 can select from the following disciplines:

- Early Childhood Education

- Recreation and Leisure

- Photography

- Office Administration

- Tourism and Hospitality

- General Education

- Human Services Foundation

For more information on Fanshawe’s CICE program, visit tinyurl.com/fanshawecice.