The Pre-College Transition Program is a four - week development and assessment experience for students in high school grades 10 – 12. The program is able to accommodate 25 – 35 students. These students are blind, severely visually impaired, multiple disabled and are considering attending college.
This unique vocational planning program was specifically designed to prepare students to undergo the transition from high school. CBVI has worked in partnership with Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, where the program has been conducted each summer, since the program was established in 1973. Participation in the program provides the students with actual academic, social, and personal reality confrontation.
The students experience life on campus and are fully integrated into the Drew community. They attend classes in various buildings, live in the dormitory, take meals in the student’s dining center, and are encouraged to make full use of the college’s facilities under controlled and supervised conditions within the confines of the campus.
The classes presently offered are as follows:
• Careers
• Computer- basic
• Computer- advanced
• Orientation & Mobility
• Mathematics
• English
• Adaptive Technology (keyboarding/Braille)
• Study Skills
• Peer Counseling
• Phys. Ed
• SAT Prep
• Life Skills
Evening activities and group activities are planned to give students opportunity to interact with their peers. Weekend activities are planned, as well, for those students who elect to stay on campus over the weekend. Upon completion of the program, each instructor writes a report on each of the students that they have worked with during the program. These reports are shared with the transition counselor and the education counselor and are used in identifying strengths and weaknesses that can be addressed during the upcoming school year.
The Pre-College Transition Program has been used as a model by other states and organizations for over 15 years as a means to enable students to achieve a better understanding of their own potential and gain self-confidence, while learning and experiencing first-hand many of the situations they will eventually have as college students.
For more information, contact Debbie Kassoff-Sainz, Supervisor of Transitional Services, at 973-693-6489; Debbie.Kassoff-Sainz@dhs.state.nj.us
