Ancilla College wants to help students with Autism Spectrum Disorder get a college education. College officials announced the launch of the Autism Program at Ancilla College during a press conference Friday.
College President Ken Zirkle says the program will be the first of its kind in the state. “There’s no institution right now that’s focusing on post-high-school and what do you do with those individuals and how do you get them prepared for what’s out there in life,” he says. “I honestly believe that we could be the school that turns out, one of our graduates, that is the person that will go out and find the cure to cancer. Many of these people have that type of intellectual ability, and if we can help them, who knows what they’re going to be able to find?”
Leading the new program will be Kristen Robson, who has worked for several years with people with disabilities at Mercyhurst University in Pennsylvania. To gain admission to Ancilla’s program, she says students must first be able to meet all the college’s academic requirements. “They are accepted into Ancilla, and then from there, they go through another kind of admissions process, where we’ll be looking at things that they’ve submitted for their application,” she explains. “They’ll submit psychological assessments. If they need any kind of accommodations through ADA, they’ll have to submit those sorts of things, as well. There will be an interview process where I will be sitting down with the students.”
Students in the Autism Program at Ancilla College will be housed at the campus’s Lake House, which Zirkle says will include a special live-in counselor. “It’s hard to put an individual that’s suffering from this or that happens to have it, put them in a regular residence hall because not everybody around them understands,” he explains. “This way, they have their space. There will also be a space in there for quiet time, if they need to just get away from everything.”
He adds the program will give students a variety of skills they need to operate in society. “We want to teach them the social skills,” Zirkle says. “We want them to be able to shake hands, look you in the eye, talk and interact in a social way. And we want to make sure they’re making sound academic progress. They’re not just coming here to take care of the social side. We want them to be making academic progress, so that they can graduate from here. If we do less than that, we’re not going to be doing them any service.”
Students who complete Ancilla’s program will be able to transfer directly into Mercyhurst University. Robson adds the ultimate goal is to help students attain gainful employment.
Enrollment for the Autism Program at Ancilla College opens Monday, with classes starting in the fall. Zirkle says the plan is to start with five to 10 students, but expects it to grow over time. Faculty training for the program was funded with support from the Ball Brothers Venture Fund.
You can hear Friday’s complete press conference this Sunday at noon on Maximum Impact. For more information about the Autism Program at Ancilla, visit ancilla.edu/autism.
