High School High Tech is a free program for high school students with disabilities. The Center For Independent Living works to get students into the program as early as their freshmen year, to help guide them through the process from the beginning of their high school years to the end. The main purpose is to prepare students with disabilities for life after high school. This effort helps students to figure out what it is they want to do after high school, whether that’s going straight into the workforce or if they want to explore the post secondary education option. What Drew expresses enjoying the most about the program is how students are able to explore and try new things and the opportunity for them to get hands on, real world experience.
The High School High Tech program is designed for students to learn and explore what their special interests are, then a program is created around those interests. Students get immersed in the actual field they’re interested in, to confirm whether or not it’s the right field for them. Participants are connected to hands on experiences, such as job shadowing, internships, field trips, and workshops. Students get to learn life skills, such as financial literacy, resume building, and skills that are needed whether they’ll be choosing to take the route of going into the workforce or into post secondary education.
High School High Tech also provides interactive and engaging special projects for the participants, such as encouraging entrepreneurialship and tapping into the imagination that students have about creating products or services that can make the world a better place.
This is an exciting program especially at the start of a new school year. Enrollment is year round, for any school year. Two workshops are held monthly and are designed to interest of the students; the program takes significant efforts to meet students where they are.
Drew has seen first hand and have heard from both students and parents how much of a difference this program has made. One of the most impactful aspects of this program is that it offers students in high school a role model and mentors who help to encourage and show students that they are capable of achieving what they want out of life; believing in students when they most need it.
Drew leads by example, by overcoming challenges and barriers in his own life and he’s now eager and inspired to show others how they can lift themselves up to live the independent life.
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