4/7 Blog

 

THRIVE Director Notes

Posts on this Blog will be directed to help families see what is going on in our THRIVE Program.  Items discussed on the Blog have already occurred.  Please refer to the THRIVE activity calendar or UCM activity calendar to keep updated on what's coming up.  Also, if you want to learn more about assistance with your son/daughter learning how to drive, please contact Mr. Brunkhorst.  

Director Notes: 

Softball season; The Last games are tonight, we will play at 6 pm and 7 pm.  Dress for the weather if you are coming out.  It looks like a cold one.

Graduation Is coming up fast.  Please finish the Google form or update it if you have more or fewer people coming.  We’ve also started sharing our THRIVE Focus on our Graduates on Facebook.  Please watch our Facebook page for features on our graduates.  What a great time of year!

First-Year Students:

Foods & Nutrition I: Debra Southard  

Monday, we finished up making biscuits from scratch. Wednesday, students were assigned a group project to research a nutrient. Each group had a different nutrient to research and will present the following week. Friday, we started making rice pilaf. All the students have done an excellent job cleaning. Students always seem very proud of what they made. They have gained multiple skills this semester.

Biscuits anyone??

Workplace & Community Skills: Gary Manning & Mrs. Southard

We have been discussing what the students can do this summer on how they continue to develop their responsibility and independence.  This includes doing activities on their own, with their families and friends.  Further, we want the students to try and get jobs over the summer, volunteer, or do an internship.  It is important that the students and their families continue to use vocational rehab and outside resources to help the students.  Having a part-time job or volunteering within their community helps with soft job skills and getting the student ready for their fall internships.

We also discussed interview skills and questions.  We went through different questions and how you may want to answer those questions.   

Daily & Independent Living Skills (DILS):  Joni Shelton

This week we finished up our Work and Job Skills unit, discussing Skills and Traits, Soft Skills and Hard Skills, and Transferable Skills and Non-Transferable Skills. We then started a new unit as an introduction to finances. We discussed benefits from a job, both monetary and non-monetary, income taxes, and reading a paycheck stub. 

Waiting for Choir to start…

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning II: Gary Manning

We have been discussing what the students can do this summer on how they continue to develop their responsibility and independence.  This includes doing activities on their own, with their families and friends.  Further, we want the students to try and get jobs over the summer, volunteer or do an internship.  It is important that the students and their families continue to use vocational rehab and outside resources to help the students. 

Internship I: Gary Manning

The students and the staff discussed interview skills and dressing professionally for an interview.  We discussed different types of questions you may get asked during an interview and how you may want to answer those questions. The students will have mock interviews at the Career and Life Design Center on April 14th.

Personal Finance I:  Lisa Garnier

This week, students learned about credit. We talked about the difference between credit cards and debit cards (credit cards are borrowed money with interest, and debit cards take money from their checking accounts). We discussed how credit cards and loans are both types of credit that are essentially borrowing money with interest. They learned that interest is the money that lenders charge borrowers for using the lender’s money. 

Third-Year Students:

Transition Planning IV: Lisa Garnier

We started our unit on apartment living this week. We discussed rent costs, what rent may or may not cover, and the different fees and costs that need to be paid upfront, such as application fees, deposits, administration fees, pet fees/deposits, and so on. We also covered landlord and tenant obligations and laws for both Missouri and Kansas. 

Internship IV: Lisa Garnier

Students continue to do well in their internships and are completing timesheets and papers as required.

Healthy Active Living class…

THRIVE Activities:

Mentor Activities: 

Rock painting with Shannen…

Great Job Everyone!!  For more pictures, please join our THRIVE Facebook and/or Instagram pages.

Important upcoming dates:   

Next Mentor Activity:  

Next week we have a group going to see Cabaret at the UCM theater with Caitlyn…

UCM Athletics:

Baseball season is well on its way.  I hope that the weather becomes more spring-like soon.

"This blog is a programming blog written by the director and staff of the THRIVE Program on the University of Central Missouri campus.  This blog doesn't accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. 

The views and ideas expressed on this blog are purely the blog owner's.  This blog does not contain any content that might present a conflict of interest.  We are simply telling you what we plan to do in our program and using the blog to help spread what we are doing on a weekly basis."