Delawareans help open new world to disabled student

Kevin Fortunato is no longer limited by the label of his disability and believes all things are now possible.

Arriving at that realization has been a long journey for the West Chester, Pennsylvania, student who is on the autism spectrum and has a mild intellectual disability.

To get there, he leaned heavily on a mother-son team from Delaware.

With the help of Delawareans Ellen and Chris Coulston, the 20-year-old, who says he was "reborn" after discovering who he really was, travels the country with the Coulstons as an advocate for transition services and how self-determination and self-advocacy work and can help others. 

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Transition services help students with disabilities prepare for employment after their school years. 

With the Coulstons by their side, Kevin and his mother, Cheryl, were keynote speakers recently at the 16th "Transition and Self-Determination Conference" in Dover. They talked in their address entitled "Discovering My Life through the Discovery Process" about the impact of educating and empowering a self-advocate to create his own path to the life he is entitled to have.

That self-advocate is Kevin. To understand just how far he has come in his transition journey, a look back at his past is necessary.

Kevin attended a school for children with learning disabilities in Pennsylvania from fourth through 12th grades. Unfortunately, the school was not focused on who Kevin was and what he was good at, his mother said.

"It was really just moving him through the system and moving from the educational system to the adult service system," Cheryl said. "It wasn’t about what made him tick and what he gets excited about."

Kevin said that when he was attending that school, he would wake up every day feeling bitter, not wanting to go because the jobs he was given there did not match his interests.

"I remember waking up some mornings and just being so upset because no one at the school was listening to me," he said. "I felt like I had no voice and that every time I advocated for myself it was always like a push-down because they were stuck in their own ways of thinking. They did not care to hear what the students wanted."

Cheryl said Kevin was merely following the school's program as it had always been. She said that because of his label and his diagnosis, he could only have limited work experiences. It really had nothing to do with what he was interested in, she said. 

Enter Ellen Coulston.

Coulston was working on a project at George Washington University's Graduate Special Education Transition program and reached out to the Fortunato family to see if she could work with Kevin on a discovery project.

She said bringing a student through the discovery process was the initial goal, but something greater happened.

The Fortunatos agree.

"Chris and his mom sat down with me and basically wanted to discover who I was as a person," Kevin said. "She wanted to figure out what my strengths were, what my exceptionalities were and who I was as a person. They wanted me to know that I was not my disability and that I was so much more than that."

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Cheryl said that all too often in the transition services world the typical assessment of a student’s career interest is a one-page questionnaire. Not a lot can be gleaned from that, she said. 

"For Kevin, before he went through the discovery process, his experience was being placed in jobs based on his inabilities simply because they looked at his label, his diagnosis," she said.

She said Coulston administered approximately 12 different assessments, but most important was analyzing that information, pulling it together to have a profile of Kevin on what works best, what he likes, doesn’t like, how he learns, environment preferences, etc. 

"She was able to confirm that his vocalizing of working with students matched with his strengths from the discovery process," she said.

Cheryl said the transformation in both Kevin and Chris is a result of their hard work using the power of self-determination and equally important, knowing that this is "a gift" not to keep, but to be shared with others. 

That was a pivotal time for Kevin, she said.

"Seeing Chris and hearing first-hand what he was doing, despite a 'disability' was the turning point for Kevin," Cheryl said. "It was the 'aha moment.' "

Cheryl said the 180-degree turnaround began when Ellen left her laptop at home, prompting Chris to have to return to Delaware to retrieve it. She said Kevin was taken aback and said “what, wait, you have a disability, and you drive?” 

What ensued was a heart-to-heart conversation between these two students, the self-advocate, Chris, sharing with Kevin that you can go after your dreams and that your disability is just one small part of you.

After that discovery, Kevin left Vanguard and has now been thriving at the Technical College High School in Pennsylvania, where he has been studying early education and getting a work-based learning experience for a year and a half.

Cheryl said that it wasn’t until Kevin went through that discovery process with Ellen and really peeled back the layers and started to look at him for all that he was without the disability that the true Kevin was revealed.

"We started seeing so much more about Kevin," she said. "He started articulating what he wanted to do in the next phase of his life."

Kevin is now happily working as a pre-school teacher's aide at The Goddard School in Pennsylvania. He would like to become a teacher's assistant and is working toward earning 2,500 hours of experience working with kids and at the same time earning his high school diploma. 

"I’m hoping to obtain my bachelor’s degree and become a full-time teacher at The Goddard School," Kevin said. "I’m taking it one step at a time and I am determined regardless of how long it takes me. As long as I achieve the goal, that’s all that matters to me."

Cheryl says Kevin is happy and confident now and as a family, the Fortunatos are no longer frightened about his future.

"To say that he has experienced a seismic transformation is not an overstatement," she said. "I want every student to experience Kevin’s journey."

So do Sandra Miller and Dale Matusevich.

Miller is the transitions coordinator for the Delaware Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, while Matusevich is education associate for secondary and transition services at the Delaware Department of Education.

Both actively work with students with disabilities like Kevin who are looking to transition from school to the next phase of their lives.

These organizations play a key role in helping students make an informed choice after high school by providing current information through a variety of resources.  

The Delaware Division of Vocational Rehabilitation provides individualized services to employers and people with disabilities, developing career pathways that link qualified employees to jobs, resulting in greater independence and a more inclusive workplace. 

In 2017, DVR placed more than 1,074 people with disabilities into careers and jobs throughout Delaware and the country; more than 300 of those placed were students transitioning from school to employment. 

"The goal is to work with schools and fill the gaps to better prepare students to transition out of high school and into the next phase of life," Miller said. "We try to connect the students, parents and agencies to see how the continuum of services can help."

Miller said revisions to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act a few years ago opened the door for agencies like DVR to work with younger children, which she believes is a must in helping more students achieve their transition goals.

She also said that engaging with the students themselves is important, as shown by Kevin's story of discovery and transition.

"Getting students at a younger age has helped us have more of an impact," she said. "When you see it working, you know how important it is."

On the education side, it is Matusevich's job to see that policies and procedures are in place in Delaware schools, which makes for a smooth transition for the students into the community.

He said the Department of Education knows it is vital for students with disabilities to have transition plans within their Individualized Education Program (IEP) and to make sure schools are doing what they need to be doing for the students in all areas.

"We set expectations high for our students in Delaware," Matusevich said. "We want them to reach for their dreams, but to look at them realistically. It is our job to help them get there."

Miller and Matusevich were co-leads for the Transition and Self-Determination Conference that took place this month in Dover. The conference set an attendance record with about 1,100 people, including more than 500 students.

The conference focused on the future career and employment goals of students with disabilities, as well as showed what is current in transition services in Delaware.  

The emphasis of self-determination – or the process of taking control and making decisions that affect one’s life – was front and center during the conference, from the keynote address by the Coulstons and Fortunatos to the 25 workshops, which eclipsed last year's conference.

For the first time, student leaders kicked off the keynote address and every workshop conducted by adult and student leaders. For Ellen Coulston, that was a great celebration of empowering the youth voice.

"They didn't do the typical introduction you normally hear at the beginning of a workshop," she said. "Instead, we showcased the student voice. This sustained the conference ambiance of student development, engagement and empowerment that can happen if we teach self-advocates how; and then provide them opportunities to practice these new skills. The conference was a perfect place for students to train and model for others, 'If I can do it, so can you.'"

Kevin has come a long way since he met the Coulstons and was able to discover who he was. He defines transition as simply creating your own path, figuring out what you want that path to look like, knowing what support you will need in order to make that path possible and never giving up, even when there are obstacles.

As part of his transition, Kevin has become a confident public speaker. He and Cheryl are now a part of Delaware’s state team that presents at numerous conferences around the nation with the Coulstons. 

Ellen feels that Kevin’s story leaves an indelible impression, showing what is possible when you focus on the strengths, uncovering who this person is, and providing the student with the power of self-determination. 

She said the biggest takeaway from the Dover conference is more than 1,000 people, including 550 students with disabilities, came together to learn that transition planning is really about preparing yourself for the career in which you have the most strengths and interests.

"Doesn't everyone, disability or not, choose a career this way?" she said. "Students left the conference embracing their exceptionalities and understanding these are the strengths that employers need."

Kevin has not only embraced his new life as a pre-school teacher's aide, he relishes his new role on the Delaware team, telling people about his journey and how others can experience a positive transition into the next phase of life.

As a part of that, Kevin now passes out cards at conferences telling people he is a self-advocate and a youth leader. On the back of the card, he includes a quote from Victoria Justice:

"STOP hating yourself for everything you aren't. START loving yourself for everything that you are."

He is now a firm believer of those words.

Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.