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Trying Out College Life

In summer 2008, 17 girls with intellectual disabilities from across Kansas got a taste of college life, and postsecondary employment possibilities, at the three-day Camp KU, held at Kansas University in Lawrence. Hosted by the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities, the camp helped them think about their own futures by hearing from women with disabilities who are in a variety of professions, experiencing campus life, and exploring community sites such as the Science City Museum. When asked what they learned at Camp KU, the girls said the following:

• "We learned how to use all our strength and skills."
  
  
• "I learned that I can do anything I set my mind to and how to set goals."
  
  
• "I've learned that a lot of jobs are open."
  
  
• "If you work hard enough you can start and run your own business."
  
  
• "Follow your dreams no matter whatever it may be."
  
  
• "I learned that you can do anything even with disability."
  
  
• "I learned to never give up or anything."

The girls at the camp were part of the Girls at Work project, an online, self-directed, education-to-employment curriculum project in Kansas funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Women's Educational Equity Act program.

Contributed by Wendy Parent, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities. For more information about Camp KU or Girls at Work call 785/864-1062.  

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Retrieved from the Web site of the Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota (http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/211/default.html). Citation: Parent, W., Foley, S., Balcazar, F., Ely, C., Bremer, C. & Gaylord, V. (Eds.). (Summer/Fall 2008). Impact: Feature Issue on Employment and Women With Disabilities, 21(1). [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration].
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Hard copies of Impact are available from the Publications Office of the Institute on Community Integration. The first copy of this issue is free; additional copies are $4 each. You can request copies by phone at 612/624-4512 or e-mail at icipub@umn.edu, or you can fax or mail us an order form. See our listing of other issues of Impact for more information.

The PDF version of this Impact, with photos and graphics, is also online at http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/211/211.pdf.

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