Aggies Elevated helps students with intellectual disabilities succeed

Heber Morse is from Sandy. He’s a returned missionary and a freshman studying business. His long-term goal is to open his own business with good customer service — the kind that “makes the customers feel important rather than brushed to the side.” In the long run, he wants to be a well-rounded business man.

But obtaining those goals was once out of his reach. Morse learned in elementary school that he had an intellectual disability, which means he learns at a slower pace.

As a child, he attended numerous speech therapy sessions because he had difficulties pronouncing his R’s.

“At those points, I felt like a singled-out person,” he said, adding that it was hard to make friends and keep up with school work.

Disorganization was a big issue for him. Also, kids made fun of him.

Morse served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in downtown Salt Lake City. Once he returned, he wanted to go to college. He was accepted into the Aggies Elevated program, an on-campus university-preparation program for those with intellectual disabilities, in mid-February.

“I soon realized that if I put my mind to it, I can work even with my disability,” he said.

Aggies Elevated accepts people on the entire spectrum of mental disorders, regardless of ability. Their motto is “[people] have the right to meaningful employment, lifelong learning, self-determination and full community inclusion.”

Aggies Elevated students are just like regular students: they live on campus, attend classes, learn university preparation skills and take college classes. Students complete about 40 credit hours of coursework. The goal of Aggies Elevated is to give those with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to be employed after college.

“We learned note-taking skills, how to do different homework assignments on time,” he said. “We learn more about what the real world is like.”

One aspect of Aggies Elevated that helps students learn how to be independent is the small class sizes, said Sophia Shaffer, who wants to study veterinary technology.

“I do much better in smaller classes,” she said.

Hannah Fassmann, who wants to study animal science, said college has been a great opportunity to be herself and move out of the house.

“It was time to move out,” she said. “I was getting on my parent’s nerves and it was nice to move out and enjoy the college experiences and move into the dorms. I’ve really had a good experience with that and meeting new people. I’ve just been loving it.”

Berkley Nero, who wants to study music therapy, said she’s under a lot of pressure to do well in college.

“My mom wants me to focus on my career,” she said.

Despite the pressure, Nero said Aggies Elevated helped her rise to the occasion.

“It takes time to be ready for college, but Aggies Elevated is a really cool program for me to be in,” she said. “It’s a new world for me to be here at Utah State.”

Right now, she said she’s learning how to be more independent so she can eventually move to Los Angeles.

Fassmann said she’s also learning how to be independent through the program by learning how to arrange a class schedule and use the bus system.

“The bus system is hard,” she said. “But I’m surviving.”

Fassmann said she wants to study animal science. In high school, she trained a few seeing eye dogs.

She said Aggies Elevated changed her life.

“I can work toward my career,” she said. “I want to be an animal trainer.”

Brianna Call, who wants to be a special education teacher, said she’s glad Aggies Elevated is helping her accomplish her dreams.

“I love to teach little kids and help them do little art projects,” Call said. “I want to help them grow up.”

Most of the Aggies Elevated students said they don’t run into negative stereotypes often. However, Nero said she sometimes runs into negative stigmas against people with intellectual disabilities. She said people judge her because they think she isn’t capable of going to college.

“But with a relaxed mind, you can do it,” she said. “If you calm down your struggles, you can do it. As long as you know how to work super hard enough.”

Call said even though she’s having a great experience at school, she struggles with making friends with people outside of Aggies Elevated.

“It’s hard having the courage to meet new people,” she said. “I also have trouble with roommates, but now we got along.”

Morse said Aggies Elevated pushes him to step out of his comfort zone by giving him opportunities to meet new people.

“Sometimes when I’m by myself, it’s hard to make friends,” he said. “But by stepping out of my comfort zone, I’ve been able to make more friends.”

But all of the Aggies Elevated students agreed that the coming to Utah State University was a chance for them to meet new lifelong friends.

—morgan.pratt.robinson@gmail.com

@morganprobinson