Spring 2010
Letter from the President
For many young people, the path of learning is guided by a dream – a dream of what may be possible, of what the future may hold. That dream might revolve around becoming a doctor, a scientist, a writer or an artist.
At Perkins, our students have many of the same dreams. But here the path of learning encompasses so much more. Not only do our students take biology, math and music courses to strive for their career goals; they also work with orientation and mobility teachers to learn howtowalk independentlywith a cane. Some practice work skills through on and offcampus internships, reinforcing social skills and a sense of responsibility. Many learn how to read and write in braille to increase their communication skills and their chances of securing employment after school.
Our students on campus are not the only ones with dreams of career and a future. We also offer support to public school children who may need additional educational services or advocacy in their community.We encourage learning and literacy for individuals around the globe by providing extensive materials from our Braille & Talking Book Library, Perkins Braillers and other tools from Perkins Products. We reach educators everywhere by providing training, webcasts and more through our Training and Educational Resources Program. And we work closely with hundreds of partners around the world to not only teach life skills to people who are blind and deafblind, but to give them work experiences and knowledge so they can provide for themselves and their families.
For all of these individuals, the goal is the same: to live a fulfilling, happy life. Perkins is only the means to reach that goal. Here is a glimpse into what it takes to launch those dreams.
Sincerely,
Steven M. Rothstein
President, Perkins School for the Blind
Contents
Campus
Community
- Personifying possibility
- Spanning the miles
- Outreach Services lauds accomplishments of Strategies for Life
- Friend us
Perkins Landscape
Around the World
Perkins
- Next Generation Perkins Brailer gets nod for Good Design
- Letter from the Trust
- More than one way to give
- Calendar
- Runner, 70, pounds pavement to support braille literacy
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Service with a smile - New graduation requirement teaches students the value of giving back
Shortly after the supper plates are cleared in the Lower School, a handful of young students trickle into the common room at Anagnos Cottage. They settle onto a couch, grab a blanket or pull up some rug.
And Secondary Program student of young students trickle into the Samantha sweeps them off to the adventures of a curious, muchloved character in juvenile fiction, in the form of Beverly Cleary’s “Ramona Quimby, Age 8.”
“It’s so great,” said Samantha, 20, who is blind and has led the weekly story time since last fall. She reads for half an hour from her notetaker, fingertips gliding over the bar of refreshable braille. While the younger students could easily listen to a story by popping a cassette or digital cartridge into an audio player, Samantha enjoys providing the human touch. “They’re attentive. They laugh at all the right places. It’s so much fun.”
While Samantha loves reading – she’s recently been burying her own nose in “My Life in France” by Julia Child, and often spends as many as four hours per day reading for schoolwork and personal enjoyment – she’s also fulfilling a new community service graduation requirement for all Secondary Program students.
“One way for students to mature is by realizing they can provide a service for other people,” said Kathy Bull, a teacher in the Secondary Program who is working with Samantha. She has led student community service projects in her Adult Living class in prior years before it became a programwide requirement.
“Community service is a way to have a joblike experience, without having to go through as formal a process,” she added.
Current economy aside, it can be difficult for young people to find jobs in the community, especially for those who are visually impaired or blind, said Secondary Program Education Director Cynthia Essex. Volunteering is a way to gain experience and exposure while building contacts and skills.
“I’m always reminding students that it’s not just that you get a job to live,” she said. “You get a job to have a life. It’s the social contacts – it’s feeling like you have something reasonable to do in your life that will benefit someone.”
Samantha, who will graduate this spring and attend St. Anselm College inManchester, N.H., in the fall to study languages, hopes to work some day as an interpreter. But in the meantime, she says she has already learned a lot from her service project, and she plans to keep her community service going after she graduates from Perkins, perhaps by reading to children in a local public library.
“The community service requirement is teaching students responsibility and to give back,” she said. “I hope other Secondary students will take their experiences and put them on their resumes, and keep working on it in their community.”
From Washington, D.C. to Watertown, Mass.
Intelligent, witty and conversant, Perkins alum Chris Jett makes a lasting impression on everyone – including former President Bill Clinton.
Jett met Clinton nearly 13 years ago when he traveled to Washington, D.C. with his Perkins teachers to attend the signing of the 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. He conversed with Clinton, and surprised security officers, by placing his hand on the president’s face to use Tadoma, also known as tactile lipreading.
Jett, who is now 23 and living independently in Brighton, Mass., had written an autobiography about his time at Perkins, which Perkins President Steven Rothstein delivered to the former president last year at the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting in New York. Clinton apparently enjoyed the gift, as he sent a personal, signed thankyou note to Jett recently.
“I was very surprised, but also pleased,” said Jett, touched that Clinton still remembered their meeting. “I was happy that he got the book. I want him to know that he is an important person in my life.”
On the clock
She’s only 18, but already Katie has worked at a library, a snack store, an office and a craft workshop. The exposure, organized by the Deafblind Program, is designed to provide her with the skills, responsibility and versatility she’ll need to hold a job after she leaves Perkins.
“I like to look at the books (and read the titles),” she said recently, working to rewind cassette tapes for patrons at the Braille & Talking Book Library on Perkins’ campus.
The goals of the vocational program are as varied as the students themselves, but each experience is aimed at helping a student learn to work with their personal abilities, like learning to focus on a task or follow directions. And then there are rules of the workplace that any young person, with or without special needs, must master, like wearing a uniform and arriving on time.
“They’re learning what they need to put their best foot forward,” said Christa Gicklhorn, vocational coordinating teacher.
The wide variety of vocational training opportunities in the Deafblind Program also includes the Hilton Café – a hip coffee stop where staff and students can purchase refreshments, while student workers practice greeting customers, taking orders and handling money.
“She has to learn the beginning,middle and end of an activity,” said Andrea Covelli, a teacher who supervised Sidney,17, while she restocked sugars and straws at the café.
“It’s a job,” added Mary Zatta, assistant director of education for the Deafblind Program. “It’s a chance for our students to learnwhat responsibility is all about.”
A new perspective
The New England Eye Low Vision Clinic at Perkins is one of the few clinics in the region that serves patients of all ages with multiple disabilities. But the importance of that distinction truly becomes clear when it is manifested in a young person who goes to the clinic for her first-ever eye exam.
Such was the recent case with one student from the Carter School in on, recalled Paula Honzik, a teacher of students with visual impairment and an orientation and mobility instructor with the Boston Public Schools.
“They found she was nearsighted, and glasses were prescribed for her,” she said. “To see her suddenly react visually to things was amazing – to see how much she looked around.”
The clinic is specially designed to accommodate individuals of all abilities, said Darick Wright, clinic coordinator. Ultimately, the goal is to improve patients’ quality of life and increase their independence.
The clinic also provides low vision solutions to Perkins classrooms. Jeanne Fleming, teacher of students with visual impairments in the Secondary Program, recently received a new video magnifier.
“It’s so much easier for him to use,” said Fleming of student Ariel,who uses it to read short assignments.“He can do this completely independently now.”
Personifying possibility
Jaimi Lard’s life is success story of independence
She stands in the midst of a swirling crowd of visitors, each waiting their turn to shake her hand, introduce themselves and hear her story. As Perkins’ official spokesperson, Jaimi Lard is used to appearances and answering questions. But public speaking is only the beginning of her professional skills. Lard worked in health care for 13 years, delivering mail and transporting blood samples at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, before she returned to Perkins in 2000 as spokesperson – a post that has given her contact with celebrities and wellknown politicians as well as school groups and historians, among others.
The glamour of her role aside, Lard relishes many things the rest of us consider ordinary — like residing independently, going to work and paying taxes. “I feel fortunate and lucky,” said Lard, through an interpreter. “I am proud that I have an apartment and a real job and that I am able to contribute to others by paying taxes.”
Taxes fund so many of the services that make independent life possible for people who are disabled. Lard knows the value of that assistance as someone who has been a recipient of state funded services. During these tough economic times, Lard has taken her message of gratitude to legislators and the press — speaking passionately at legislative hearings and other public forums and writing opinion pieces that address the need for funding of services for the blind and the deaf.
Lard does not consider any of this extraordinary; rather, she feels it is her civic duty. “I have benefited so much from resources that are funded by taxes. It is my hope that others will get the same types of support, but that can only happen if funding for these programs continue,” she said.
Advocating for others is one way that Lard is leaving a legacy. The other is through her public speaking duties where the potential to educate kids about deafblindness allows her to showcase possibility. “I love the way children get so fascinated – maybe because of the sign language,” she said. “I’m glad that they won’t grow up thinking, ‘Oh, poor blind people can’t.’”
To book Lard for a speaking engagement, please visit www.speakingmatters.org.
Spanning the miles
Itinerant teachers go the distance to bring services to students
As school districts and communities across the state continue to struggle to fund the cost of special education, Perkins continues its mission to support those public schools, students with visual impairment, blindness or deafblindness, and their teachers.
The Educational Partnerships Program sends itinerant, or traveling, teachers to infants and students all over Massachusetts, with the goal of giving every young person the best start possible, said Tom Miller, education director.
“For infants, we want to work on developmental issues as soon as possible,” he said. “Working with families at that young age gives them a support network they can use going forward. For schoolage kids, we want to extend appropriate levels of service to children with multiple disabilities, with the goal being that they’ll reach as high a level of independence as they possibly can.”
The Educational Partnerships Program, which employs 44 teachers, provides services to as many as 900 infants, toddlers and schoolage children per year.
For Bethany Adams, a new itinerant teacher, the training and support available to educators like her – as well as the school’s studentfirst philosophy – is what led her to apply for the job.
“It’s the training and mentorship. Every single person I have come into contact with here has said, ‘What can I do for you?’” she said. “There is a lot Perkins has to offer everybody.”
Outreach Services lauds accomplishments of Strategies for Life
Outreach Services’ Strategies for Life, which includes the Elder Learning Center, will end July 1 as Perkins refocuses its resources on other efforts.
Strategies for Life provided individuals age 55 and older and their caregivers with numerous opportunities for education and more. Outreach Services Director Beth Caruso and her staff offered individualized instruction and group classes for clients, and trainings for caregivers and families on campus and in the community that were always focused on safety, independence and techniques to cope with blindness and vision impairment.
“These programs filled a real need in the area among older individuals,” said Caruso, who credited much of the program’s success to rehabilitation specialists Debby Smith and Renée Man, as well as others who gave their time and talents to the program. “Everyone at Outreach is sad to see this influential program come to an end, but we are happy to have touched so many individuals who experienced a better quality of life, improved independence and greater happiness as a result.”
Friend Us
Keep up with the latest news and events from Perkins School for the Blind as you do with your friends and family – on Facebook. Our page, growing every day with new fans, is located at www.facebook.com/officialperkins. Tell us what you’d like to see.
Tune in!
You can also watch captivating student performances, educational webcasts and other Perkins videos by clicking on the Perkins YouTube Channel, located at www.youtube.com/PSB1829.
As always, check out
www.Perkins.org to read about school news and events and to find an in-depth collection of information about our programs on campus, in the community and around the world, as well as educational strategies, advocacy help and more.
Upward bound
As new Lower School building goes up, students receive rare education in construction process
Frozen ground and snow haven’t stood in the way of progress at the new Lower School, where the construction site continues to hum with the activity of backhoes, ironworkers and the pouring of concrete.
The $30 million project, which will build a new Lower School featuring accessible classrooms, a larger gymnasium and dining hall and cuttingedge technology, is on track for completion by the end of the year. The beginning of 2011 will jumpstart the second phase of the project, which will renovate the existing Lower School building to improve its accessibility while reserving its architectural beauty and character.
And, as they have since breaking ground last November, Perkins and Shawmut Design and Construction continue finding ways to make not only the final product accessible, but also the noisy, muddy construction process itself.
Students, teachers and staff filled the existing Lower School gymnasium recently to receive a lively update on the project from the construction workers themselves. With the foundation poured and the steel frame erected, the construction site is slowly becoming recognizable for what it will be – a brand-new school.
Mike Mallett, senior project superintendent for Shawmut, broke down the project for students with an analogy.
“I like to relate the new building to a human body,” he explained. “You have your feet that you stand on – in the building, they call it footing. You’ve got your bones inside you that hold you together – that’s what we’re doing outside right now, putting the bones of the building up. It’s called structural steel.”
Mallett and Rob Hair, education director of the Lower School and Early Learning Center, also unveiled a new tactile construction board – a length of wall where students can touch samples of materials ranging from rebar to cement to plastic piping, which Mallett will update through each phase of the project.
Before they went up on the wall, Mallett passed those samples around the gymnasium, allowing each student to explore the texture and weight.
“Cool!” said Lower School student Zachary, 11, holding a piece of foundation drain pipe. He poked his fingers into the ends of the plastic, and listened to teacher Becky Hoffman explain how its design allows water to drain through. “Is this the real thing?” he asked, impressed.
In the coming months as the weather improves, Mallett plans to tour small groups of students through the construction site, giving them an upclose look at the building where they will study, eat and play next year. Students, who have listened to the banging and beeping outside their windows for months, also plan to perform a concert featuring “construction sounds,” and construction workers hope to make guest appearances in classrooms from time to time for lessons and conversation about construction.
“What an inspiration to the students,” said Hair. “This project will give them a handson experience that few children ever have, no matter where they go to school. They will learn not nly about their new schoolhouse, but about how all buildings are made. Mike Mallett and the Shawmut crew are wonderful partners.”
The interaction with students makes this project a uniquely enjoyable one for Shawmut, Mallett said.
“I didn’t realize how involved the kids wanted to be at first,” said Mallett. “Just the look on their faces and the interest they had – it really got me interested in involving them any way I can. The bottom line: this is all for them.”
Al Gayzagian – A tribute
From walking through the school gates as a kindergarten student to serving as a member of the Board of Trustees, Albert Gayzagian, who passed away in January, devoted decades of his life to Perkins School for the Blind.
His was a gentle yet influential presence at Perkins, paired with a sense of humor, an untiring work ethic and a zeal for learning new things. His family brought him to Perkins in 1931 at age 5, realizing their son was visually impaired. Six subsequent surgeries did not save Gayzagian’s sight, and he remained at Perkins through the eighth grade, learning braille and writing with a slate and stylus. He appreciated the value of the education he received at Perkins right from the start.
"I still remember my very first day,” said Gayzagian in a 2005 interview. “I did have some excitement, some feeling of excitement that I was going to embark on something new.”
After moving on to public high school and eventually graduating from Harvard University, Gayzagian found work as a typist at John Hancock, where he ultimately rose to the level of a senior official overseeing corporate planning.
Gayzagian married Betty Murby, who had attended Perkins alongside her future husband, and the couple livedin Watertown with their two children. Despite a busy career and family life, something always brought Gayzagian back to his school stomping grounds. Gayzagian became the first blind member of the Perkins Board of Trustees in 1976 where he volunteered his time and shared his experience in a multitude of ways. In addition to serving as a Trustee, Gayzagian also served on Perkins’ Alumni Board, holding several executive offices. He was a board member of the National Braille Press, the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and the Bay State Council of the Blind, along with many other roles in additional organizations. His perspective, wisdom and wit will be greatly missed.
Coming of age
As children grow up, transition programs in Philippines acquaint themwith the adult world
With her very first paycheck, she wanted to buy her grandmother a hamburger. For Yves, 23 years old and visually impaired, it was a simple yet meaningful goal - full of accomplishment, pride and a sense of belonging to the adult world.
Mila Wayno remembers it well. As a rehabilitation specialist for Resources for the Blind in the Philippines, Wayno had worked with the young woman since she was a toddler of 3 years. Yves had grown up with assistance from RBI, and, as a young adult, recently joined the organization’s fledgling transition program – a new program, founded just three years ago, to develop new vocational, social and recreational services for the children who are visually impaired or blind, with multiple disabilities – who were growing up.
“With the first income she got, she said, ‘I will buy a hamburger for my grandmother,’” recalled Wayno. “And she was really very happy when she was buying one.”
Transition programs for adolescents and young adults are a fairly new concept in the Philippines, where basic therapies and services for individuals who are blind and visually impaired are still not easily accessible or affordable. Today, with the help of a twoyear grant from the United States Agency for International Development, Perkins’ partners RBI and Parent Advocates for Visually Impaired Children, or PAVIC, are working to grow transition programs for these young adults, as well as increase families’ awareness of the possibilities for their children. The goal is to take the services these individuals received as young children – orientation and mobility lessons, selfcare and feeding, or basic communication skills – and to bring them to the next level, so these individuals can strive for a level of independence and happiness and participation in their community as adults.
“Some of our children reach 20 years old and they have never received this kind of service,” said Francis Choy, chairman of the board of trustees for PAVIC. “The parents never know. They just accept what their child can do and what they do not know how to do. But if some proper intervention is being done, the quality of life for their children can really improve.”
PAVIC organizes parents and helps them advocate for their children’s rights to education and services.
“If we do nothing for our children, nothing will happen for them,” he said.
Learning as they grow
Perkins International and Latin American partners work together to define concept of transition programs
When the concept of transition began developing in Latin America approximately five years ago, many agencies had different interpretations of what transition should mean in their countries. Thanks to the help of Perkins International’s partners, administrators, parents and teachers across all countries of Latin America now have a more universal, holistic definition of what transition means.
“Transition involves the person who is visually impaired, blind or deafblind and connecting them from school to adult life,” said Steve Perreault, coordinator of Latin America projects for Perkins International. “We now have a regional dialogue and people are connected across countries and sharing success and program models. It’s alive.”
Aurea Soza knows firsthand the importance of carrying programs for children who are visually impaired, blind or deafblind to the next step. She started a program called Sullai for her daughter Rupe, who was born deafblind. Perkins International has since supported Sullai with training and resources. But seven years ago, Soza realized it was time to adapt those services to support and reflect Rupe’s transition to adulthood.
“It was very important to start to see Rupe as an adult,” said Soza, with the help of interpreter Graciela Ferioli, Latin America Regional Representative, in a recent interview. At 27, Rupe especially enjoys going to the discoteque and the cinema – events the family has worked into Rupe’s transition program, to acknowledge and encourage her own preferences and social development.
Soza’s transition program begins by meeting with the student and the family to learn about the student’s personality, likes and dislikes, and the family’s dreams for the future.
“According to their needs and dreams, we make a plan for each student of activities we are going to develop,” she said.
Those activities range from vocational experience, such as working in a shopping mall stocking and cleaning shelves, or learning to make bread or salad at a participating local school. Participants also experience farm work, feeding animals and working in gardens. And social events include fun time such as swimming.
The underlying theme, Soza says, is the effort to acquaint each student with their peers and the outside world.
“All the activities happen in the community,” she said. “They are developing a future.”
Next Generation PerkinsTM Brailler® gets nod for "Good Design"
The Next Generation Perkins Brailler, developed and manufactured by Perkins School for the Blind, received the “Good Design Award” for 2009 – an acknowledgement of the Brailler’s new, streamlined look, lighter weight and ease of use. The Good Design Award was presented to 500 designers and makers of products ranging from a Mars Landing Rover created for a 2030 NASA Mars Space Mission to a water purification system for rural South African villages.
The Next Generation Brailler is a redesign of the classic Perkins Brailler, which was introduced in 1951. The Next Generation Brailler was launched domestically in October of 2008, and recently became available internationally.
“We are immensely proud of the new Brailler design. In modernizing a beloved classic, we introduce a whole new generation of students, young adults, and longtime users to a lighter, smaller, and easiertouse Perkins Brailler,” said David Morgan, general manager of Perkins Products. “Our greatest hope is that the new Brailler helps spark continued interest and education in braille for young people and adults here and around the world.”
To learn more about the Next Generation Perkins Brailler, visit www.Perkinsbrailler.org.
Letter From The Trust
The Perkins family has always been about going the distance. From our dedicated teachers and staff encouraging our students to challenge themselves in new ways to our parents, friends and volunteers supporting our initiatives with their ideas, time and donations, our shared goal remains the same: to offer those we impact the most independent, fulfilling life possible.
This season, the Perkins Marathon team is an excellent example of this spirit. Seventeen individuals have committed to push through 26.2 miles to raise funds that are critical to continue making all things possible at Perkins.We thank them for their dedication and pledge to raise $140,000 from friends and family, and we pledge to help them raise funds from the entire Perkins community to reach $200,000.
Since joining the Perkins family in late October, I’ve witnessed this remarkable commitment to go the distance in so many ways. Communication portfolios created by our students in the Deafblind Program are an amazing tool designed to help these individuals prepare for their future beyond Perkins, whether it be in landing a job, a volunteer position or creating new relationships with their peers and community. Our Lower School construction and renovation project is another example. Perkins’ decision to build a school that will better meet its students’ needs, now and far into the future, shows an unwavering commitment to helping our students make the transition into confident, self-assured adults. I am thrilled to be part of an institution that I consider to be the best in its class.
Thank you for being part of the Perkins legacy – and a part of its future.
Warm wishes,
Kathy Sheehan
Executive Director of the Trust
More than one way to give
Wallace Kountze can’t remember exactly how Perkins School for the Blind first came to his attention. But when it did, it “came with a bang.”
“We volunteered two or three times and we were hooked,” he remembered.
Since then, Kountze and his wife Claretta of Medford have helped out in a variety of ways at Perkins. But the couple decided they wanted to make an even greater impact. They have made Annual Gifts several times in recent years, and have also provided for Perkins via their will.
“It’s very important that those of us who can make a contribution, financial or otherwise, do so,” said Kountze. “Because these are very trying times for nonprofits in particular.”
To learn more about giving, contact:
Alleather Toure at 617-972-7680 or email her at Alleather.Toure@Perkins.org.
Honor Mom and Support Perkins School for the Blind
GIVE $100 and we’ll send your mom the “Perkins Sensory Bouquet” from A Whole Bunch Flower Market anywhere in the US
GIVE $15 online and we’ll send your mom a set of note cards featuring student art
SEND A FREE personalized Mother’s Day ecard featuring student art
To send an ecard ormake a gift, visit http://www.Perkins.org/give/mothersday or call Jennifer Volpe at 617-972-7667.
Calendar
May
2010 Perkins Possibilities Gala
Thursday, May 6
Educational Leadership Program Graduation
Thursday, May 27
June
Graduation Exercises
Friday, June 18
Alumni Weekend
Friday, June 18 – Saturday, June 19
Vision 5K
Sunday, June 20
Runner, 70, pounds pavement to support braille literacy
Perkins Trust Board member Bill Schawbel doesn’t like parties. He doesn’t like gifts much, either. So when his 70th birthday was approaching this spring, the two-time Boston Marathoner came up with a unique way to celebrate: take on the 26.2 mile run as part of the Perkins Marathon Team, and challenge the community to help him raise $70,000 in support of braille literacy and Perkins’ overall $200,000 marathon goal.
“The goal is to make a difference for a person who is blind – who, if they are literate, most likely will be socially and economically independent,” he said.
According to a study by the American Foundation for the Blind, of the people who are blind and employed, 90 percent are braille literate.
While Schawbel has not run the Marathon since age 50, he said he’s enjoying the struggle to “learn to run again."
“My first goal is to raise the money. The second is to stay healthy,” said Schawbel. “The third goal is to finish – and the fourth is not to finish last.”
Go the distance with our 2010 Boston Marathon runners on April 19
Our Perkins team needs you to help them meet their overall $200,000 fundraising goal. They will do the "foot work." You can support them online, meet the team and watch an inspiring video of one of our members by visiting www.Perkins.org/bostonmarathon. You can also mail your gift to PSB/175 N Beacon St/Watertown, MA 02472/Attn: Marathon Team. Gifts will be accepted through May 31, 2010.
Back Cover
Founded in 1829 as the nation’s first school for the blind, Perkins today serves over 94,000 infants and seniors in their homes; school-age students on campus and in the community; and children who are blind or deafblind in 63 developing countries. The school is an accredited member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the National Association of Independent Schools. It is licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Mental Retardation. Perkins School for the Blind does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, color, creed, nationality, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.
Tel: 617-924-3434
Fax: 617-972-7334
All we see is Possibility.
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