Undergrads, BOCES students collaborate

Her students with developmental disabilities have found at Rochester an environment that they've never known: a place where they and their contemporaries in college can learn from one another.

Spending half the day at a paying job, her 25 students are shuttled to and from Meliora Hall on the River Campus to continue their education through a program run by Monroe No. 1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services. Earlier links with the School of Medicine and Dentistry moved BOCES to ask about available classroom space. The University agreed, but wasn't content to just rent a room.

"We wanted to bring BOCES students into the life of the campus, and for our students to learn about a group that would be educationally enriching," said William Scott Green, dean of the College. The arrangement, now in its third year, has spawned many academic and social interactions.

Since the BOCES students, who are 18 to 21, started meeting on campus, a cluster of psychology courses has been built around aspects of developmental disabilities. "In daily interactions, the BOCES class gives Rochester students an exposure to people with different learning skills, physical skills, and social skills," said Loisa Bennetto, assistant professor in the Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology. To handle details and to stay responsive to student needs, her department and the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities continue to cooperate.

While working with the BOCES class, undergraduates help to coach and develop projects relevant to Stulpin-Cretelle's curriculum. Beyond their coursework, undergrads learn about career possibilities in the biological and social aspects of mental retardation, autism, and related disorders.

This unique set of circumstances has reshaped what many would consider a traditional special-education class. State education officials say they don't know of another program like it in New York, although services for BOCES students in their late teens can take many forms and sometimes are offered on community college campuses.

"I told the kids we were pioneers," said Stulpin-Cretelle. "Really, everything we do here is based on the needs of the students."

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