Ohio College2Careers Supports Students with Disabilities

OOD Director Kevin Miller and Kristin Garrett, Ohio College2Careers (Ohio C2C) Program Administrator, join the podcast to discuss career support for college students with disabilities.

Ohio C2C is an OOD program available at 17 public colleges and universities in Ohio to ensure students with disabilities have the support they need to complete their degree and/or credential, earn higher wages, and meet the demands of tomorrow’s labor market.

Transcripts and MP3 files are available at ood.ohio.gov/podcast.

Learn more about Ohio C2C.

Need more information or have general questions about Ohio College2Careers? Email college2careers@ood.ohio.gov.

Do you have a disability? Do you want a job? OOD can help! Visit OODWorks.com or call 800-282-4536 to get started. 

Find Ohio College2Careers on social media: @OhioC2C. Find OOD on social media: @OhioOOD.

Have a disability? Want to work? Visit OODWorks.com!

Transcript

OOD Works Podcast Episode 32 Ohio College2Careers Helps Students with Disabilities Transcript

Kim Jump: On this episode of OOD Works podcast, I am pleased to be joined by OOD Director Kevin Miller and Kristin Garret, Program Administrator for OOD’s Ohio College2Careers. And this is a program that we’ve commonly referred to as Ohio C2C. It’s available at 17 public colleges and universities in Ohio and it helps ensure that college students with disabilities have that support that they need to complete their degree to go on to earn higher wages and really be able to meet the demands of tomorrow’s labor market. I’d like to welcome you both to the show. Welcome back Director Miller and welcome Kristin.

Director Kevin Miller: Thank you Kim. It’s always good to see you and it’s good to see Kristin. You know, just recently we were able to see each other for the first time, in gosh, 17 months. Kristin,

Kristin Garrett:  I’m very excited to be here in-person and participating. Thank you for having me.

Kim Jump: Yeah, well, I’m looking forward to our discussion. There are so many awesome things that we do to support college students with disabilities. But first, Director, I want to start with you. I mean I want to ask you…You actually are a father of a college student. Talk to us about this creation of Ohio College2Careers. It’s been in place for about two years now. How did all of this come about? 

Director Kevin Miller:  Well, it all started when my wife and I took my son Connor to Columbus State Community College. He was in his senior year of high school and when we went to the orientation, you know, I was, as a parent, I was concerned. I was like, well, he was on an IEP in high school, he was given that additional time for tests, he was given certain tests read to him, he had some additional accommodations and quiet space to do that.  Did they even do that in college? You know, I was kind of ignorant to understanding what would even be available, if there was anything available. And, so, when we were going through the orientation, the Columbus State ambassadors, I have to give them kudos. I am a graduate of Columbus State Community College, thank you very much. They said, oh, we’re going to stop by as part of our tour to the academic resource center, which includes the disability services center. I was floored when we stopped by and I thought it might be one person or two people with an office and it was a building that was two stories tall, and has I think 20 to 30 employees in it. So, I started to ask questions, how many students come in there? And they are like, oh, roughly 4,000. I was like, are you kidding me? 4,000 students? And she’s like, oh yeah and it’s only growing. So, I came back to the office the next day, or on Monday, or whenever it was, and I went to Susan Pugh, our Deputy Director of Vocational Rehabilitation.  I said, Susan, I was floored by what I found out when I went to Columbus State. And, so we started talking about it and I said, you know, I know I know we’ve been helping students with disabilities and college visits. Obviously, it wasn’t something that was predominant. And I said, why is that? And, some of our listeners may know, but for those who don’t, you know, for almost 20 years, the agency had been under what was called an Order of Selection. Now I always say, that when I talk about an Order of Selection, I always like to say I am a fan of the law, I follow the law, but it doesn’t mean I like the law. And what that basically says, that if an agency doesn’t have enough resources to serve everybody who needs that in the State of Ohio, or whatever state you’re in, you have to prioritize based on disability. 

Kim Jump:  At that time, there was a wait list.

Director Kevin Miller: That’s correct. So Order of Selection means there are three categories. This is in the federal code. Most Significantly Disabled, or MSD; Significantly Disabled, or SD for short; or an Individual with a Disability, which is signified with D.  So, a counselor has to do an assessment, and then give them their eligibility and you have to slot them in one of those three. And those are based on the seven functional limitations that are laid out in federal code. Things like communication, mobility, able to take care of one-self, self-direction, and things like that. And so, it’s unfortunate, but, students who are going to college are not as significantly disabled as perhaps those that we serve, that are you know, trying to come out of a sheltered workshop, have never worked before, have significant cognitive disabilities. You know someone who’s able to go to college, you know, is probably going to school, they are able to get back and forth to school. So, I don’t like it, I always like to make sure I say that. But I follow the law and that’s what it was.  So, we had a wait list that reached 18,000 people.

Kim Jump: Now, what year are you talking when you refer to having a wait list?

Director Kevin Miller: We went on Order of Selection in the early 90s. I want to say it was 91. We went off of Order of Selection, I want to say in 2014. So, really our relationships with the colleges, when we started asking questions with our colleges, we had started to as we got off of that wait list, Susan had come to me and said, hey we want to start talking to colleges. And I said, yeah, that’s great. It didn’t really hit home with me until I took Connor to Columbus State. And so I started asking questions to colleges, like, why haven’t you referred people to us? And they were like, well we knew you guys had a wait list and most of our kids are not going to qualify for help. So, we had to and we’re still, trying to overcome 20 plus years of this idea of well, we can’t go to OOD because our students are not as significantly disabled. They are not going to qualify for services. So that’s why C2C was born. Kim, out of a personal experience with me and then we started asking questions and it mushroomed out from that to where right now, very conservatively, you can take 10 percent of whatever student body population, you will go to, whichever university or college you want to go to, and that’s about the number they have that are on an IEP, or 504, or multifunctional plan, whatever it may be, that are coming out of high school, that are going to matriculate into college and they need additional services. 

Director Kevin Miller: So, as we started to talk with the presidents of the universities, which I did. I spoke to each one face-to-face, prior to the pandemic to talk about, I know it’s hard to believe, but the state is here to provide resources and help at no charge to you. And this is an example of Governor DeWine leadership and his efforts about his Executive Order to make Ohio a disability inclusion state and model employer because it was such an easy sell.  When I talked to them about this, he was literally like, well, why wouldn’t we do this. And it was born. So, kudos to all our staff and I know that Kristin is going to get into more detail, but that is the background of how this really came about. And there’s really nothing like it in the country. We have other states that are doing some things where they’re partnering, but there is nothing that is systemic like what we’re doing right now.  

Kim Jump: There is another level of support for individuals with disabilities. That is great. So, Kristin, tell us about your role with Ohio College2Careers. 

Kristin Garrett: Sure, so, just like what Director Miller said, I want to add, that overall, what we’re doing is helping college students with any type of disability navigate higher education and support them to achieve their career goal because it is very different from coming out of high school with a lot of support, or just coming back into the workforce, or changing up what you like to do. Higher education is just different to navigate. We are working with students to help things like major selection, classes, in some cases, financial support, support with technology to help them be successful in their classes and into employment, and having a counselor right there on campus, immersed into that culture of the school. They know who to go to, they know where to go to get support, and they are there to be able to provide those wraparound services to help them meet their career goal. And speaking of wraparound services, we also have support for our career development specialists who assist students and College2Careers with finding internships, and they link that to our employer partners across the state to provide that additional layer of advocacy for college students.

Kim Jump:  Great.

Kristin Garrett: And, so, when I think of my role, I really look at overseeing all aspects of the program. From supporting the counselors and the supervisors in the field, to the directors and personnel we work with at each school, to mak sure we’re providing the best services and opportunities to college students. Another key piece to that is really outreach and sharing about College2Careers. I get really excited when people reach out to me and want to hear more about it. They might have heard something from a colleague or a student and just the thought of having a meeting booked to share College2Careers and it’s really fun to talk about those things. The program is new, its innovative, and it’s really, really needed right now. Especially during the pandemic.  

Kim Jump: Great. And so, you talked about counselors being immersed. So, we’re at 17 schools as previously mentioned. So, there is a counselor right on campus at each of these schools.

Kristin Garrett:  Yes, so, it’s definitely a major benefit of the Ohio College2Careers program is our counselors are located within the Disability Services or Career Services offices. So, they work with those staff members, they are with the students, and they come in obviously through this virtual platform, which is a little different, but we have so many that are able to connect with students that are really seeking those offices for help.  And then their staff are like, hey, I think he might be interested in this program. Here’s so and so, and I’m going to send you and appointment with a link. You can join and meet them here or while we’re in-person, they hand them right off organically. It’s really amazing that the schools have really embraced having a counselor on campus.

Kim Jump: Yeah. It sounds like they have been very good partners to us. 

Kristin Garrett:  They sure have. 

Kim Jump:  Let me ask you this.  Where is Ohio College2Careers available?

Kristin Garrett:  Sure.  I’ll go ahead and list out all of the schools. Bowling Green State University, Central Ohio Technical College, Central State University, Columbus State Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, Kent State University, Lorain County Community College, Miami University, Start State College, The Ohio State University, Ohio University, The University of Akron, University of Cincinnati, University of Toledo, Wilberforce University, Wright State University, and Youngstown State University. 

Kim Jump: So, Kristin, what would you say is the value of this partnership really to the students?

Kristin Garrett: Yeah, I would say that our partnership is really valuable because we’re aligning what OOD can do for students with disabilities, with what the schools can provide to support students with disabilities.  We’re finding in many ways, that we’re doing so much more than what we thought was possible. We are learning from each other through the process of serving students with disabilities. Oftentimes I’ll be in meetings, and we will be talking to the directors about a student or a particular issue, and we’ll talk about what we can do and then they will say, oh, we didn’t realize you could do that. We didn’t know that technology was available. It’s really nice to be able to just learn from each other and share experiences and looking at different ways we can serve students with disabilities. It’s like a team of support around our students, and who wouldn’t want that while they are trying to get through college and find employment. 

Kim Jump: It must be a big reassurance to the students, especially nearing graduation to know they got that career support. I would imagine that’s the top concern for students, their parents. You know a concern about landing that first job.

Kristin Garrett: Yeah.

Kim Jump: What has Ohio C2C been like during these last months through the pandemic? I mean, what does it look like? Is it different at every school?

Kristin Garrett: It is. Every school is very different, but at the end of the day, our first priority is the students that we serve and the schools that we’ve been building relationships and partnerships with.  So, we came into the pandemic; first and foremost, they knew what their needs would be and how we would meet those needs.  And so, we didn’t want either of them to suffer, so the first thing we did was connect and reach out to everyone. Touchbase. And through that process, we really found out another reason that we are really proud to serve. There were people who were in crisis. Financial crisis, mental crisis, confusion, unsure what they want to do, what their next steps would be.  Do I want to be in school anymore? We even found people that actually preferred the virtual environment due to their disability; it provided additional opportunities for them. So it kind of went both ways, but really what we wanted to do was just provide support and often times just listening to people letting them communicate what they are going through. We definitely knew that there were some things we would need to change, from what we thought.  And so we put our heads together and thought about what we could do, and so we did come up with some different ways that we did things, and one of the first things that we did was ask our students and schools kind of what they needed. How did they want to get the information? What could we do to support? And so, a lot of the feedback we received was that students really wanted structure, content, and flexibility- so that opportunity to be able to have a little bit of flexibility and time appointments - give me time to really think about what I want to do. We recorded, we had each of the counselors record welcome videos that students could “meet them,” quote, unquote, meet them.

Kim Jump: mmm, hmm.

Kristin Garrett: And that way, even prospective students could see who that counselor is - because normally they would be able to walk into their office or be brought into their office. It was really nice for them to just have that, and we were able to use those in orientations, and for sheer experience opportunities, so we did that. And our career development specialist definitely met the need and put together an amazing career development toolkit with 10, soon to be 15 topics. Some of the topics are networking, social media etiquette, creating a resume, accommodations, and disability disclosure. And through providing those to students, we have really seen the benefit of having those additional resources available and also serving our students this past winter, and there were some really great topic ideas, so we’re going to be adding a few topics and post COVID workforce is really interesting, so we have some great content coming up on that. So, there is a link on our website that you can access the career development toolkit if you’re interested.  But, they did a really good job developing fact sheets, as well as kinda short 5 min videos about the content – so that anybody can access it anytime - current students that might need that additional information or prospective students that we’re trying to reach. We hosted virtual hiring events, we hosted information sessions throughout the semesters, and so this is obviously all in addition to what we do with normal, voc rehab counseling and advocacy. But, the pandemic definitely forced us to think outside the box, pushed us forward in many ways that we might not have been if it didn’t happen.  And so, just giving like a special shout out to counselors for their flexibility and selflessness through all of this. They're always making up, “What can we do to help first, and then we’ll figure it out from there.” So, I really appreciate their flexibility in schedule and opportunity and being creative and thinking outside of the box.

Kim Jump: That’s great. It sounds like a lot of good has actually come out of this time, then. So, let’s talk numbers. How many students have we served through Ohio College2Careers? Kind of what does it look like?

Kristin Garrett: Sure. So currently, on all our caseloads across the state, we’re serving 640 students, and since we started back in the fall of 2019, we’ve served over 900 students,

Kim Jump: Great.

Kristin Garrett: And we have the capacity to serve over 1,500 students each year, so we are still very much in the growing phase. Obviously, the pandemic probably affected that, but we are extremely optimistic and excited for the future, especially for this academic year, with students having more of a presence on campus. 

Kim Jump: So, if someone is listening and they know a college student with a disability, help us spread the word, right?

Kristin Garrett: Yep.

Kim Jump: What about students with disabilities at a college that you didn’t list, where we don’t have a formal Ohio College2Careers partnership?

Kristin Garrett: Yeah, that’s a great question. I get that question a lot, too, and people think, “Oh, I want to do College2Careers, my daughter wants to go to St. Clair Community College,” or whatever it is.  But at OOD, we work with all students with disabilities at any college and university across Ohio. So, if you’re attending a school that isn’t one of the College2Careers schools, it’s okay; you can still receive the benefits of working with a VOC rehab counselor. We have liaison counselors assigned to many of the schools across Ohio, so we do have those partnerships started and developed, but we can serve any student in the state of Ohio with a disability.

Kim Jump: Okay, great. You had mentioned there were a lot of resources posted to the web page. What is that web address for the Ohio College2Careers program?

Kristin Garrett: Yes. It is ood.ohio.gov/ohiocollege2careers, and the two is a number 2.

Kim Jump: On it. Thank you. Director, as we look to wrap up today, I know you continue to have dialogue with the participating college presidents. What do you share with them about really the value to their students that are participating? 

Director Miller: I really share with them what I’ve heard from each of them individually, and so we try to share that. As an example, when you talk about what are the benefits of this, a lot of times, what we find, is the universities obviously know they have a lot of students with disabilities. What they’re not good at, and this isn’t a knock, they’re trying, but they're not experts at trying to get a student an internship if they’re deaf or their blind, or they’re on the autism spectrum, with a business. You know more and more universities and colleges are saying as part of your graduation – you have to do an externship or a co-op, or something like that. So, I had one university president share with me, “ya know when I was a dean of engineering, prior to becoming president of this university, I had a student, it was a 4.0 student in engineering, and part of the graduation requirement was to do an internship, and we just didn’t know at the university he was at, it was not in Ohio, how to get this person an internship because they were in a wheelchair.” And so, he said, “this person didn’t succeed.” And he said, “so I always felt like, how can we do this?” And he just didn’t understand how that could work, but that’s where we come in.  As Kristin has been talking about, I think the real key as a parent, and how this structure is different, or why it’s unique, that I talk about, is we are bringing together as a bridge that counselor and the career development specialist that we have. We have one arm in the disability resource office, and we have one arm in the career placement office. And what we’re finding is, everyone does a great job of preparation and focusing on the disability part and then separately, there is the career placement office, and they understand the means to the end is getting a job. But, when you’re dealing with individuals with disabilities, that’s not something either of them know how to do. 

Director Miller: So, how do you put that together? And the networks we have through our Employer and Innovation Services, over 700 plus employer partners, plus we find universities go, “Oh we have a great relationship with this business or this business that recruits heavily and we go,” Oh great, we do too.” So now let’s bring that to another level by saying, “Oh, by the way, we’re also working with the university of whatever, or this college,” and we open that door up even wider than we’ve already been doing because now they know it’s not just entry-level positions that OOD can help us with, from a commitment of diversity and hiring people with disabilities, but also higher-level, entry-level positions that require a Bachelor’s degree or Associates’ degree, or credentials. So I think,  as a parent, I think what’s important for parents to hear or please spread this too, whomever, is that is what I think is the unique part of this program, is having, being part of that pivot point between those two offices and to help them understand that we can bridge the verbiage that needs to say to a business, but also to say to – programmatically, within university, what’s needed to be done to help them get out into the business world, and makes sure that flows back and forth. So, that is still in its building phases, Kristin’s talked about, and we’ve learned more about hearing what other people are doing and sharing those examples then going, “oh okay, how can we help this student?” 

Director Miller: So, then Kristin does a great job of doing meetings, you know, every couple weeks, I think with everybody in the university system, that’s a part of this program, and there’s a sharing. And there’s the ability to say, “well, here’s what’s going on in this corner of the state, and then this situation, and then other universities go, “great, we can do the same thing.”  So, by sharing, we’re showing that we’re a system of various universities. We’re not trying to look as just one piece and silo it as it goes through. Cause the better the system is, the better it will be for every student cause they’re selecting their college or university based on what they want to do.

Kim Jump: Great. That’s awesome. Anything else that either one of you would like to share that we haven’t touched on?

Director Miller: I think I want to end with something about more outreach. Again, I want to hit that again.

Kim Jump: So, our works not done; it sounds like we have a lot of capacity to serve even more students with disabilities. 

Kristin Garrett: Yes, we do. We definitely do, and we are always thinking of new ways to reach students- what’s interesting to them?  Where are they? How do we reach them? Doing presentations to different colleges and deans of colleges, so we are always looking for opportunities to share about College2Careers. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to us. We can present to your team, group, anything. So, we’re here to help and ready to serve. 

Kim Jump: Great. Kristin, would you be willing to share your phone number and email as like a point of contact, and we’ll make sure it’s in the show notes, too. 

Kristin Garrett: Yes. My phone number is 614-438-1895, and my email is Kristin.Garrett@ood.ohio.gov. 

Director Miller: And Kim, I’m going to put you on the spot because we also have a social media account for college to careers.

Kim Jump: Director, you’re so good.

Director Miller: You’ve trained me well, Kim. Maybe you’d like to share that you can follow along and see some of our; we have some great success stories…

Kim Jump: Yea, we do…

Director Miller: …that I know you post. So, I’d want to challenge everyone who are listening to this. Whether you have somebody who is in this program or not, I know you know somebody who has a disability who is getting ready to graduate from high school or maybe is in college; make sure you make them aware of this. Tell them to go to our social media account…

Kim Jump:  That’s right, we’re on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and the handle is @OhioC2C, so OhioC2C. Very easy to find.

Director Miller: It’s a great way of seeing some results, too. Kristin and her team of counselors and so forth that are out there. It’s more than just the counselors; we have job specialists and other providers, our partners out in the community that provide services to help them with areas that they need to be stronger in,  and so, it’s a great way of seeing some positive results of this. Because we are a results-oriented business. We want to see students be successful, graduate, and get a job. We’ve done a great job, Kim, of putting some success stories out there where people have come from the C2C program, but we want everyone to know that awareness is the most important thing. So please share this. Talk to people you know who are interested in having a student who’s wanting to go to college and, like me, like, “what could possibly be out there for my son? Is he going to be at a disadvantage?” A lot of times, it’s not that there aren’t services there – it’s just not knowing how to ask the question. So, we appreciate being able to have this type of podcast to talk to people. I want to challenge everybody to make sure you take this and spread this out to others. We’re not telling you how to fish; we’re telling other people how to teach others to fish. So, get out there and share this information with folks.

Kim Jump: A transcript of today’s episode is available at ood.ohio.gov/podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We’re on social media @ohioood. Do you have a disability? Do you want a job? We can help. OODworks.com