Area schools hold joint Transition Fair
All the school districts in the county, and some surrounding districts, held the first joint Transition Fair Thursday at the Hot Springs Convention Center to expose students to the options available to them after they complete high school.
Kay Ekey, director of special services for the Lake Hamilton School District special education department said about 500 students attended the event from Lake Hamilton, Fountain Lake, Lakeside, Hot Springs, Jessieville, Cutter Morning Star, Mountain Pine, Malvern and Bismarck school districts.
“What transition is, is it just prepares kids for the future,” said Courtney Eubanks, Fountain Lake School District special education supervisor. “It teaches them interview skills and job skills.”
To accommodate all the students, Eubanks said the districts were separated into four groups, with each part of the group lasting about 40 minutes.
She said each group began by listening to the keynote speaker, Thomas Pennington, a professor and legal council at Arkansas Tech University, discuss how to avoid making mistakes while using social media.
Pennington said he primarily focused on Facebook because “it is the most visited website on the planet.”
“There are more people on Facebook each month than any other website in the world,” he said, adding about 50 percent of employers look at a person’s Facebook ( page) when considering hiring them.
“Of that half, 70 percent have said, ‘ We did not hire someone based on what we saw on their Facebook,’” he said, noting that Facebook privacy isn’t really private.
Pennington told the students rules he created for using Facebook include, “post happy, don’t post threats, don’t post about an ex boyfriend or girlfriend, don’t make negative posts about school, teachers or bosses and not to friend strangers.”
He also touched on the dangers and consequences of cyberbullying and sexting.
After the speaker, students joined breakout sessions based on their interests after high school.
Eubanks said the collegebound session was taught by Lakeside School District’s special education supervisor Judy Blackwood, job skill training was taught by Blackwood and Eubanks, employability was taught by Eubanks and Ekey and community services was taught by LHSD special education department assistant director and 504 coordinator Lisa Wheeler.
Eubanks said after the breakout sessions, students could visit with 17 different exhibitors who offered “helpful services” to the students.
Exhibitors included the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, First Step, Group Living, Abilities Unlimited, Arkansas Career Training Institute, Ouachita Job Corp, Rainbow of Challenges, Spa Area Independent Living Services, Arkansas Enterprises for the Developmentally Disabled, Civitan Center, the University of the Ozarks, ITT Technical Institute, Bost, College of the Ouachitas, Hot Springs Hous- ing Authority and National Park Community College.
Eubanks said planning for this years event began at the beginning of the academic year, and it was decided to hold a countywide fair versus individual school fairs because “it’s easier for the exhibitors, and it allowed us to have several breakout sessions.”
“We’re also holding a parent session tonight from 4- 6 p. m.,” Eubanks said Thursday. “Exhibitors are going to stay and the parents will have breakout sessions as well.”
Monya Clifton, transition consultant for Arkansas Transition, said she helps students who receive special education services who wish to pursue higher education.
“We go to the high schools and work with them with transitioning their kids into adult life, whether it be to a facility or college, and I’m here today to talk about College Bound Arkansas, which is our program in the summer,” she said, adding students stay at the University of Central Arkansas to experience college life.
Clifton said College Bound Arkansas allows students to stay for three days over the summer, and “they live on campus, and it’s amazing. They find out ‘ There are other kids like me with the same disabilities.’”
“They learn how to network, but when they first come in, they don’t want to be there and cry, but they then cry when they’re leaving,” she said. “They go through several college classes while there, just to see what it’s actually like.”
Clifton said Arkansas Transition also works with all of the state’s college disabilities departments to ensure “sound transitions” for all the participating students.