TRAVERSE CITY Absorbing skills for adult life, 200 area students attended the Learning Independence From Experience conference.
Held Thursday at the Great Wolf Lodge conference center, the LIFE transition gathering drew 200 students from the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District. Fifty volunteers also pitched in during the conference, which was hosted by the Disability Network Northern Michigan. The nonprofit organization based in Traverse City partnered with the TBA-ISD and Michigan Rehabilitation Services for the event.
For the third year, the LIFE transition conference had a mission to bring students with disabilities together to learn not only from the speakers but also from each other.
"For a lot of students with disabilities, they don't often get a lot of positive messages, they feel different," said Jim Moore, executive director of the Disability Network Northern Michigan. "Allowing that participation to occur with these kids opens them up to being different in the world, allows them to be more confident and to expand their horizons."
"How often is disability thought of as a limitation we view it not as a limitation but a strength to build on," he added.
Sessions covered during the half-day conference included a range of topics teaching life skills. Drawing on community experts, talks covered everything from budgeting, banking and buying a car to managing stress, leadership and starting a business. Attendees could attend three sessions each, choosing among nine topics per session.
Kelly Everson, 20, came to the conference to learn and also volunteer: during one session he helped demonstrate the basics of making a PowerPoint presentation. His other goals for the day were to attend a talk on "Your Rights and Responsibilities: the ADA and IDEA" and another on communication.
"I think it's good to have a day over here to see what kind of stuff is out there," said Everson, a member of the ACE2 (Adult Community Experience,) a secondary program for young adults at TBA-ISD.
Conference keynote speaker Peggy O'Neill captivated the audience with her personal story of overcoming adversity, discrimination and her own negative thinking. A "little person," as O'Neill described herself, she has transcended the daily challenges of life at three feet, eight inches tall.
"Over and over I got the message that I wasn't good enough and I started to believe that about myself," she recalled of her growing up and young adult years. "We don't have control over what people say to us but we do have control over what we say to ourselves."
Now a happily married certified psychotherapist, trainer, author and coach, O'Neill exhorted her listeners to believe in themselves. She laid out a three-step process for success no matter the obstacles: stopping the negative voice inside, acknowledging the gifts provided by challenges and unveiling the diamond inside.
"We do have a choice about how we respond to these challenges," she said. "Each of you have a choice of your self-image and you can choose to see yourself as a diamond or as something else."
O'Neill's message resonated with Haley Schram, 16, a junior from Mancelona. With dreams of attending Central Michigan University to study nursing, Schram also attended sessions on renting an apartment, preparing for college and Red Cross Safety.
"I learned to be who you are, don't be ashamed of who you are," she said. "The conference is a great opportunity to come out here and see what people have to say about the programs."
For more information on the Disability Network of Northern Michigan, call 922-0903 or see www.disabilitynetwork-nmi.org.
Print this story
E-mail this story
Discuss this story
