Summer Academy creates pathways to independence for high school students

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three summers ago, Antonia “Nia” Barley arrived at Penn State’s University Park campus as a high school student preparing for the transition to college and adulthood.

This summer, she returned to help other students make that same transition.

Barley, a Penn State junior majoring in human development and family studies with a minor in rehabilitation and human services (RHS), in 2023 participated in the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry’s (L&I) Summer Academy for Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired.

Barley, who has retinitis pigmentosa — a group of rare eye diseases that affect the retina (the light-sensitive layer of tissue in the back of the eye) — and is visually impaired, said the experience gave her tools to navigate college and, perhaps more importantly, confidence in taking the next step.

“It impacted my life greatly,” Barley said. “It helped with giving me more tools to navigate into college, adulthood, just preparing me for a large campus like Penn State.”

Now a resident director for the Summer Academy, Barley is helping younger students develop the same independence.

“It’s very rewarding,” she said. “It’s awesome to see the growth and know that some of them might return as resident assistants just by watching me in the resident director role and being like, ‘If she can do it, then I can do it.’”

Residential programs

Barley’s path illustrates the longer-term impact organizers hope to create through two residential programs held at Penn State each summer: the Summer Academy for Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired and the Summer Academy for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

Operated through L&I’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) with support from Penn State, the programs prepare high school students for life after graduation, whether that means college, employment, vocational training or another path. The blind and visually impaired program moved to Penn State in 2014, while programming for deaf and hard-of-hearing students followed in 2017.

During their time on campus, participants experience aspects of college life while developing practical skills. Depending on their needs, that can include learning to travel independently; cook and do laundry; requesting interpreters or captioning; working with disability services; and understanding how to advocate for accommodations in college, health care or the workplace.

Kiley Foley, a Penn State College of Education alumna who directs the programs for OVR, said the goal is to understand where each student is in the transition to adulthood and identify areas where additional support may be helpful.

“We’re taking this time that we have within the short seven-day period per program to really assess where they are currently,” Foley said.

Learning self-advocacy

That emphasis on self-advocacy is especially important as students leave high school, said Deirdre O’Sullivan, associate professor of RHS and one of the Summer Academy instructors.

In high school, students with disabilities may have parents, teachers, counselors and other professionals advocating alongside them through individualized education programs. College and employment bring a different expectation.

“They’ve got to now advocate for themselves,” O’Sullivan said. “They’re going to be doing a lot of the things that others have done for them for the first time on their own.”

O’Sullivan and fellow RHS faculty member Pia Smal teach classes exploring college and career options, workplace expectations and ways students can address potential barriers or misconceptions surrounding disability.

Smal, also an associate teaching professor, said she particularly enjoys watching uncertain students begin to see new possibilities for themselves.

“You start seeing those light bulbs go off and realize that this is absolutely something they can do and work toward,” she said.

Forming peer relationships

But the Summer Academy offers more than college and career preparation. Faculty and staff said another important part of the experience is giving students opportunities to form relationships with peers who share similar experiences.

O’Sullivan said some participants may be the only student in their grade — or even their school — with their disability. At Penn State, they suddenly find themselves among a cohort of peers navigating some of the same questions.

“They make friends with each other, and they’re comparing notes,” she said. “That’s really exciting to see them bond and connect over that and share their stories and encourage each other.”

Student support

The experience also can shape the Penn State students hired to support participants.

Mason Copeland entered Penn State undecided about his academic direction. After becoming a Summer Academy resident assistant, conversations with people involved in the program helped lead him toward communication sciences and disorders and an RHS minor.

Copeland, who has studied American Sign Language since elementary school, has worked with both Summer Academy cohorts for two years. He recalled supporting one participant who arrived highly anxious but became noticeably more confident over the course of the week.

The experience has also reinforced lessons from his coursework about accessibility and working alongside people with different needs and experiences, he said.

Foley’s own path provides another example of how those experiences can ripple outward.

She arrived at Penn State intending to become a secondary education and special education teacher before discovering RHS through a roommate and changing direction.

Faculty members O’Sullivan and Smal later encouraged her to pursue graduate school. She earned her bachelor’s degree in RHS in 2016 and a graduate degree in counseling education in 2018, completing an internship with OVR before joining the agency.

Today, the former student oversees the Summer Academy and hires faculty members who once taught and mentored her.

There is another twist: As an RHS student, Foley once applied to become a Summer Academy resident assistant herself — and wasn’t selected.

Now she runs the program.

Continuing impact

For Foley, stories such as Barley’s demonstrate that the impact does not end when students leave campus.

Barley attended the first Summer Academy Foley directed, later returned as a resident assistant and this year moved into a resident director role. Foley said former participants returning to support younger students — along with resident assistants discovering new interests and career possibilities — shows how the experience can continue spreading from one person to another.

“It’s always great to see how that ripples outward,” Foley said, “and how we’re able to bring it back in and really make those lasting impacts on everybody involved.”

For Barley, that cycle is already underway. She hopes the students she mentored this summer leave with the independence, confidence and perseverance she gained when she was in their place.

“There will be days that are hard,” she said, “but you just have to keep going, keep pushing.”