Event to help disabled students find mentors
MU organizations are partnering to find workplace mentors for disabled students.
Published Oct. 23, 2007
This month, three MU offices are participating in a national event intended to raise awareness for disabled students seeking to enter the workplace.
MU Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator Lee Henson, the Office of Disability Services and the MU Career Services Council are partnering in an effort to find mentors for disabled students who are seeking careers after graduation.
Henson said he is responsible for helping to recruit mentors and successfully pairing them with disabled students for academic assistance and career guidance. He said mentoring is a way to help students become more comfortable and confident in finding employment.
"People with disabilities are people first," Henson said. "They are people like everyone else. People make assumptions about people with disabilities that are not accurate."
October is legally recognized, by a 1988 congressional mandate, as National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
The U.S. Department of Labor, through its Office of Disability Employment Policy, is responsible for raising public awareness on disabled persons in the American workplace.
Office of Disability Services interim Director Barbara Hammer said her office will participate in the effort by helping to spread information to students.
Mathew Buckley, Learning Programs Coordinator for the Office of Disability Services, said he views mentoring as important for disabled students.
"We want to see our students succeed beyond their college experience," Buckley said.
Henson and the Office of Disability Services are also sponsoring — in partnership with several private organizations in the Columbia area — Disability Mentoring Day, a nationwide event that the White House began in 1999 to boost the status of National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
Although the event is officially scheduled for Oct. 17, local recognition of the event will be held Oct. 26 at the Activity and Recreation Center in Columbia.
The event will give disabled persons a chance to meet with employers and disabled persons in the workforce who could provide them with job-shadowing opportunities, contacts with employers and mentoring.
The event will also feature a complimentary lunch, a wheelchair basketball exhibition and a keynote address by Missouri Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia.
Services for Independent Living Executive Director Aimee Wehmeier, whose organization is sponsoring the event, said career mentoring for disabled persons is akin to the mission of her organization, which seeks to provide services to maintain the independence of disabled persons.
"Employment is a key piece of that," Wehmeier said.