What We Do
The Bridges to Adelphi Program offers individualized comprehensive academic, social and vocational services that are designed to make the transition from high school to college easier for students who have autism spectrum disorder, a nonverbal learning disability, or problems with executive functioning and socialization.
Bridges, rather than running the lives of the students, pushes the students to develop life skills to help manage their own lives. With that help, I was able to easily handle the transition from college to career life.
Academic Support Services
As we try to take an individualized approach with each student, while some students may only have two support meetings per week, other students may have ten meetings per week. We usually begin with four academic support meetings per week, two of which are with an academic coach, and two of which are with a learning strategist.
An academic coach is a Bridges’ student worker who supports the student with executive functioning, syllabi review, confirming assignments have been submitted, reviewing academic grades to determine academic standing in each course, time management, communication monitoring, interpersonal skills, problem solving, self-care and academic accommodations.
A learning strategist is a Bridges’ student worker who supports the student by focusing on review of assignment criteria, assignment preparation, time management skills to enhance assignment completion, exam preparation, research and library use, problem solving, education on academic success practices, identifying areas of avoidance in the academic realm, discussion of natural consequences as well as academic accommodations.
The Bridges program also has a relationship with the math and computer science department, so we offer math and computer science tutoring.
Social Support Services
Students who are interested can be assigned a social coach. Social coaches meet 45 minutes to an hour a week and go over the struggles that the students may face. They analyze their behaviors and work on changing negative behaviors and beliefs while promoting positive peer relationships. They work to enhance communication skills with their social coach, peer mentor and other students. They work on interpersonal relationship skills, ways to understand social cues and ways to communicate effectively.
Vocational Support Services
The Bridges program offers all students the opportunity for full/standardized vocational testing, which consists of five vocational assessments. The results of the assessments, which are all based on the student’s self-reports are used to determine or confirm majors, possible careers and best work environments.
Students are also offered individual vocational assistance with:
- Resume writing and job interview skills
- Completing job applications
- Finding internships and job placements on and off campus
- Job coaching and meeting with the student’s supervisor to assess their job performance
- Learning what it means to be an employee and how to be a good one
- Professionalism in the workplace
- Effective communication and non-verbal communication skills
Our goal is to teach the strategies and skills to students during meetings so they can learn how to utilize these skills on their own and be more independent. We foster independence and self-determination. While we encourage students to self-advocate for themselves, we always provide assistance if they request so.