Project Excel: A Demonstration of the Higher Education Transition Model for High-Achieving Students with Disabilities.

Abstract

Project Excel, a six-week summer transition program for high-achieving students with disabilities at the University of Arkansas, demonstrated the usefulness of the Higher Education Transition Model as an organizational concept and framework for the administration of the transition process. The model includes psychosocial adjustment, academic development, and university and community orientation as essential considerations for students with disabilities as they enter and adjust to college life. The twelve students who participated in Project Excel received academic advising and personal counseling, enrolled in six hours of college credit, and participated in a wide range of social and recreational activities. Overall, students rated the program as a good- to -excellent college preparatory experience. The process of transition from childhood to adulthood has been a topic of keen interest among educators and social scientists for many years. Recent initiatives within special education and rehabilitation service delivery systems for individuals with disabilities suggest that students with disabilities require more support than their nondisabled peers to progress through the often traumatic adolescent years. School-to work transition programs coordinate educational and vocational rehabilitation services for youths with disabilities, which enables them to initiate the career development process within school curricula (Turner & Szymanski, 1990). Unfortunately, that transition model has not yet been fully applied to higher education, where students with disabilities often encounter a void in vocational rehabilitation where special education left off, with inadequate institutionalized services in place to meet their college transition needs. In other words, choosing to attend college rather than going directly to work after high school puts the student with a disability at a disadvantage, because no formalized transition policies have been established to address the former option.

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