The PIE Experience

By Meredith Stoops and Anna Restuccia

Every semester, about 60 小草影院 students enroll in Psychology of Individuals with Exceptionalities or PIE for short. According to the College鈥檚 course catalog, PIE serves as an 鈥渋ntroduction to special education.鈥� But, as Dr. Matthew Ramsey, Chair and Associate Professor of Education at Benedictine, points out, the class is, more fundamentally, an introduction to disability, since one half to two-thirds of his students don鈥檛 have any previous significant experiences with disability.

Convinced that 鈥渨e can鈥檛 come to know about someone with disabilities if we don鈥檛 know someone with disabilities,鈥� Ramsey encourages his students to do just that through 笔滨贰鈥檚 鈥渆xperience points,鈥� which account for 20% of the grade in the course. 鈥淣ot all of them are about having direct experience聽with someone with a disability,鈥� Ramsey states, 鈥渂ut I鈥� give more points the closer to actual human contact they get.鈥澛燬o, while students can some earn points by preparing a book review, scheduling a professional job shadow, visiting a classroom, etc., the highest scoring experiences are service-learning opportunities such as helping at Special Olympics competitions, respite care events, or camps for individuals with disabilities. 鈥淔or your first time it鈥檚 really scary,鈥� shared freshman Sara Pavlyak, 鈥渂ecause someone else’s safety and dignity is in your hands.” Pavlyak and four classmates served for a weekend at Camp Barnabas, a Christian Special Needs camp where individuals with disabilities are both campers and volunteers. 鈥淲e had to help the volunteers help their campers,鈥� she said. The weekend at Camp Barnabas made an impression on Pavlyak on a personal and academic level: “When Dr. Ramsey is talking about what we will experience鈥� I’m like, 鈥榊eah, I know what he’s talking about,鈥� which is really a blessing.鈥�

Most of the service-learning experience points in the course take place off campus, which can make participation more difficult for those who don鈥檛 have cars. This spring, however, students in PIE will have a unique on-campus opportunity to engage area youth and adults of all ability levels. In collaboration with Special Olympics Kansas, Achievement Services for Northeast Kansas, and Special Needs Ministry of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas (Special Needs Ministry), 小草影院 will host 鈥淔ield Day,鈥� on April 18, 2020. According to the event鈥檚 website, Field Day is a 鈥渇un morning of physical activity for people of all ability levels, ages 3 and up.鈥� Though the event is only from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, the organizing team, which includes Ramsey, hopes Field Day will be but one step towards a more sustained outreach to persons with disabilities in the area. 鈥淥ur purpose is really to reach out to families within the Atchison area to determine what kind of service they need鈥� says Tom Racunas, Lead Consultant for Special Needs Ministry. Field Day, as well as any new events or programs it might lead to in the future, will rely heavily on Benedictine volunteers and service-learners, such as the students in Ramsey鈥檚 PIE class. According to Pavlyak, the next set of Ravens in the course should strongly consider helping with opportunities like this: 鈥淔or experience points, we can watch a movie, or read books,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut鈥� actually doing things for and with people with special needs is a lot better; you can read a lot of books and still not know anything about people.鈥�