Fresno State offers a unique program that helps students with disabilities to transition into adulthood.
Techniques for Access Reaching Goals and Employment Training (TARGET) is a program exclusively opened to students with disabilities from Sanger Unified School District. These students are typically 18 to 22 years old with communicative, physical, psychological and/or academic disabilities.
“TARGET’s purpose is to prepare our students, students with disabilities, for adult life in all the different ways that we all are preparing ourselves,” said Wayne Richardson, program coordinator.
Richardson facilitates his students’ experiences at Fresno State. Scheduling 24 students to be in different places at the same time is rather difficult, but Richardson hopes to create more opportunities that fit students’ personal preferences. Some classes he’d hope that students will have access to are music and DJing.
The TARGET program specifically aims to help students integrate into their communities as productive members. On campus, they’re able to take classes that help them enhance their social skills and learning skills. Through the process, they learn how to be independent individuals, Richardson said.
They learn the basics of what it’s like to be in a work environment. At an off-campus location, students get hands-on training with cooking and cleaning. This helps them become more independent, especially if they want to live alone in the future.
“Students with disabilities specifically need more time and coordinated activities in order to prepare them for adult life and to support them in that transition period from high school to work,” Richardson said. “If you have high expectations of them and you teach and support them, then they can surpass people’s ideas of what they can do.”
Ulises Martinez, 18, is eager to find work after he graduates from the program. He expresses how much he’s enjoying his work experience classes at Fresno State.
“I like TARGET because it gives you experience,” Martinez said. “One day you work here and the next day you work there.”
On a Wednesday afternoon, Martinez is passing out The Collegian’s newspaper with two other students from the program. After graduation, Martinez’s plan is to start working. He wants people to see that he’s a hard worker and that he’s able to do things on his own.
Diego Rodriguez, 19, hopes to eventually live by himself after finding a job. He joined the program so that he can work, but it’s also helped him become more social. Rodriguez’s dream is to work at a radio station one day.
A few feet away, Mason Frazier, 19, is standing alone and quiet with a stack of The Collegian in his arms. He likes that the program is helping him to become more responsible. The program has introduced him into doing more adult things for himself.
“This is how I sing and it makes me cope more with words when I talk to people,” Frazier sings.
“I want them to know that I am a good singer even though I stutter,” Frazier said. “I have a unique singing voice that helps me speak.”
The TARGET program not only helps students with obtaining work experience, but it also helps build their confidence.
The Collegian is partnering up with the TARGET program, offering job opportunities for students. Every Wednesday morning, TARGET students distribute The Collegian to departments across campus. In the afternoon, they pass out copies in the Free Speech Area. Aside from distribution, students also collect old newspapers and clean exteriors of news kiosks.
“When you’re not used to working with somebody with a disability, it is uncomfortable and it’s ok that it’s uncomfortable,” Richardson said. “In my experience, when people push past that time, that period of being uncomfortable, they’re usually better for it.”
