Friedens’ Chianne Boburchock’s workbooks help make friends
Chianne Boburchock’s kindergarten class learned about a lot more than coloring inside the lines. A classmate, Mayah, lived with cerebral palsy, which greatly affected her mobility and communication skills. To create connections with classmates, her mother visited the class and facilitated an open conversation about Mayah’s different abilities. Looking back, Chianne knows what an impact that made.
“A lot of the other kids with disabilities were looked at differently and weren’t treated the same way Mayah was because kids didn’t understand the way they were,” she said of her Somerset Area School District class that graduated in 2020. “I wanted to give kids the chance that Mayah had to express who they are in ways they are comfortable with.”
For her Girl Scouts Gold Award project, Chianne created three workbooks to help those with special needs express their individuality. The books, titled “One in a Million,” are tailored toward those living with cerebral palsy (in honor of Mayah, who passed away in middle school), autism (in honor of Chianne’s younger brother), and a more general edition that serves any other special need.
In her mind, the fill-inthebooks act as that group discussion in kindergarten, letting new friends, teachers and coaches succinctly learn about an individual’s favorite things, areas where they excel and more. To adapt to COVID19 precautions, she created a Facebook page where the books can be downloaded and printed for free.
Chianne is entering her sophomore year at the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown, where she majors in computer science. She hopes to work in cybersecurity, but in her “free time,” she’d like to improve augmentative and alternative communication aids — the computerized tablets or apps used by nonverbal individuals — because she’s seen how “frustrating” they can be for users.
In the meantime, her workbooks will continue to embolden those with special needs to make friends quicker and receive assistance when necessary.
“I just wanted them to say, ‘Hey, I might have a helmet or crutches or a wheelchair or a computer that helps me talk, but that doesn’t take away that I’m still a kid, and I want to have fun and be your friend.’ ”