Success Stories
John, an adult with CP and a Learning Disability, went to the Duval County Health Department for his mentoring experience with a graphic artist. John got to see how she created brochures, makes changes on the computer, prints out copies, uses the folding machine and laminates pages. John was fascinated with all the machines and loved learning how to operate them. He had a wonderful experience and they enjoyed having John there. A relationship between John and the Department of Health has developed, and John now goes there to volunteer once a week, printing, folding, copying and laminating brochures and flyers.
Stacie is a visually impaired junior studying Marketing at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (FSDB) in St. Augustine. She spent an afternoon with Karen, owner and manager of the Corner Dollar Store. Karen, who is also visually impaired, taught Stacie how to operate the cash register, order products, stock products in appealing displays and greet customers. Stacie learned a lot to share with her marketing classmates.
Jubal is a junior studying carpentry at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind who also happens to be deaf. During Disability Mentoring Day Jubal spent part of his day shadowing Peter who is a carpenter for Victorian Vehicles, a company that restores trolleys for Historical Tours. As Peter is also deaf, communication was not a problem between the two. Not only was Peter able to demonstrate various carpentry skills to Jubal, but he was also able to offer some pointers on communicating with co-workers who have limited sign language skills as he has limited speech.
Jeff of Marion County was thrilled to have job shadowed with the IT Department of the Marion County Board of Commissioners during Disability Mentoring Day 2004. After the experience the department offered Jeff an internship opportunity the following summer. Because Jeff is interested in working within the Technology field he is looking forward to his internship with great enthusiasm.
Kristen is a visually impaired junior studying Marketing at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine. Kristen spent Disability Mentoring Day with Anita of the Bureau of Business Enterprises, who is also visually impaired. While shadowing, Kristen was able to get first hand knowledge on all the aspects of managing vending machines including stocking, ordering, collecting funds as well as book keeping and budgeting. This was a very enlightening experience for Kristen as she is considering a career in the field of retail. She is now more interested in the operations of the vending retail business.