PASCSCK VALLEY—Not everyone goes on to college after high school. Many graduates go on to the military or trade school or travel, or straight to work or other adventures.
Some of us need extra help making the transition to independent living, forging community connections, and developing transferable job skills. At least three high school districts — and many employers in our area — have been working to make that transition a success, and more partner businesses are always welcome to sign on for a few hours a week.
Pascack Valley Regional High School District has a program Milestones@PVR “for adult students, ages 18–21, with multiple intellectual and moderate learning and language disabilities.”
The program, says the district, is designed to assist students with disabilities to develop the skills necessary to independent living.
A simulated apartment setting in Hillsdale provides a learning environment for students “to acquire and perform independent living skills. Students complete weekly chores, grocery shop, plan and prepare meals, maintain their household budget, learn to travel, and organize personal calendars.”
They also intern at participating businesses and services in the community, gaining vital experience and feedback.
Park Ridge and Emerson districts team up to provide The Owl House, established by the Park Ridge Board of Education in 2016. This program “is for students who have met all of their high school graduation requirements yet still have Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals and objectives in the area of transition to adult life.”
The Owl House, “preparing today for tomorrow’s success,” is based “in a home in the heart of the Park Ridge community” where “each day, students are provided with daily exposure to the skills necessary to live and work in natural community settings. The program says students also have access to internships and job sampling at local businesses.”
Just outside our area, Ridgewood and Northern Valley also offer such programs.
According to Anne Catalano, a job coach at Milestones, such programs are beneficial “because they teach students various skills such as how to make a budget, financial skills, proper work etiquette, conversations skills, and other basic life skills that are needed on a daily basis that many of us take for granted such as making a haircut appointment, using an ATM, and filling out a medical history form.”
She said, “The other main focus of these programs is to provide students with many varied internships within the community so that they can experience work in a variety of settings and develop different skills and determine what job is best suited for their strengths/abilities and interests. Job coaches from the school district work with individual students by modeling and teaching the skills necessary for each job until the student can be independent whenever possible.”
Catalano — who has a B.S. in regular elementary education teaching with a special education minor, and a master’s degree as a learning disability teacher consultant — told Pascack Press, “As a parent who’s had two children graduate from PV, and one who is a junior, I have witnessed how the culture in our community is to view college as the main path for graduating seniors.”
John Snyder photo
She said, “However, I know students who have chosen a different path and have been very successful. These paths should be explored in more depth within the high school environment and not viewed as an inferior choice.”
Milestones is for graduates, but at Owl House, there can be instances where students go through the program depending on scheduling and how responsible they are. Aged 18–21, they work on skills often looked for in employment, such as being punctual and presentable.
Janis Bullis, from Park Ridge, helps run the Owl House, which is based in a building next to Park Ridge High School. She emphasized that their program aims to offer internships with “as wide a variety as possible.”
Owl House participants are picking up work skills — and evaluations — at The Iron Horse restaurant in Westwood, ShopRite Hillsdale, and Bethany Community Center in the Township of Washington.
The process with students at the Owl House is similar to Milestones; students pick up more responsibility with time and proficiency.
Bullis reported that students working at a gym washed, dried, and folded “hundreds of towels” and brought them to the locker rooms.
“It depends on the students and what their skills are,” she said.
Catherine, a senior at the Owl House, works at Dairy Queen. She has been in the program for all four years of high school. She says her favorite part is “learning different things, learning how to make Blizzards, [and] Blizzard cakes.
Bullis said that during one shift, Catherine made 120 Blizzards.
Zabrina Kearns, M.Ed., Milestones transition/internship coordinator for more than three years, says nine students from Pascack Valley High School participate. Five students from Pascack Hills High School are in the program. Kearns says approximately 15 students are expected to join them in the summer, and that the program is seeking a larger base of operations.
Backing Milestones this term are approximately 17 job sites and “mentors,” including Dunkin’ in Hillsdale and Montvale; Jersey Mike’s and Bubbakoo’s Burritos in Park Ridge; Cedar Tree in River Vale; and Pascack Press in Westwood.
They’ve also worked at Greens Do Good in Hackensack, “New Jersey’s first vertical farm that’s growing for a greater good,” which notes that through its Workforce Development Program, “we provide more than 800 hours of training each year to teens with autism, teaching them environmentally sustainable practices along with essential job skills. This helps them build their resumes and lays the foundation for future employment.”
It says, “For our adult participants, we offer paid employment opportunities, valuable work experience, and meaningful community integration. To amplify the progress we’re making, we’re also working to grow our employment pipeline in partnership with other ‘green’ businesses.
Milestones participants report to Kearns’s office in Hillsdale for half of every day. There, they learn how to budget, schedule appointments, write professional emails, and perform other workday tasks. They can take the bus or walk to work after lunch.
After their internship hours, they return to “the house” to complete final chores (cleaning the windows and bathroom, sweeping, taking out the trash and recycling, and so forth), before going home.
Stuart Jeong, a Milestones veteran, tells us “I have had a really great experience being a part of the Milestones program. I have had the opportunity to shop for and cook my lunch each day, manage my own bank account, and have had internship experiences in many settings including [the former] Reilly’s Rib Cage [in Hillsdale], Walgreens in River Vale, and Mount Everest [ski shop] in Westwood.”
At Pascack Press, four Milestones interns so far have been in charge of curating the paper’s weekly library calendar: Ashley and Christian, and now Nick and Mitchell. They’ve given feedback on stories in development, typeset information from flyers, and bagged newspapers for delivery.
Editor John Snyder says, “It’s really essential that this work be done quickly and accurately, and that’s what we’ve gotten with Milestones, under the immediate supervision of their job coach, Anne.”
He adds, “I’m happy that this partnership has worked out so well for us and for Milestones. This is going to look great on these kids’ resumes. I’ll be happy to give them a good letter of recommendation if they should ask.”
A student at Dunkin’ might start by separating hash browns from the manufacturing boxes, but can move on to putting together coffee boxes and working behind the counter.
For every tenth time that a student works, both they and their mentor sign a progress sheet that allows them to try new tasks.
Samantha Macaluso is interning through Milestones and taking classes at Bergen Community College toward her baking certificate from BCC’s Continuing Education and Workforce Development hospitality and culinary program. She says her goal is to become a baker.
“The Fresh Grocer [in the Township of Washington] has taught me so much about working in a bakery and has given me hands-on experience. I love that I have been given this opportunity,” she says.
Kearns says of those in her program, making strides toward independent living, “I pinch myself every day I get to do this—getting to be such a part of that transition.”
— Briana Keenan