Aggies Elevated program makes college possible for all
Aggies Elevated is inclusive post-secondary education, a nationally recognized program meant to make college accessible. Both the Logan and Price campus have a program.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 19% of undergraduates and 12% of graduates report having a disability. Despite making up one-fifth of America’s student body, colleges are often ill-equipped in providing an equal experience for students with disabilities. Aggies Elevated seeks to remedy this problem at Utah State University.
Michelle McKnight, Aggies Elevated executive director, said students with disabilities face unique barriers in college admittance.
“Students with intellectual disabilities have, historically, been unable to attend college because college admission is dependent on SATs, ACT and GPA scores,” McKnight said. “These things are not naturally easy for somebody with an intellectual disability.”
Programs like Aggies Elevated admit students to universities based on different criteria that take their disability into account. These students can experience college life without being bound by academic constraints suited to students without disabilities. The program is residential, providing the full college experience — dorms and all.
“We know that college is so much more than academics,” McKnight said. “There’s a lot of independent living growth, social growth, being in the dorms, dating and figuring out who you are.”
Aggies Elevated students complete a two-year certificate providing both college credit and career readiness skills. In the first semester, half of the courses focus on job application skills and emotional self-regulation.
In the second semester, courses dig deep into navigating interviews and shadowing different jobs. As summer approaches, students are expected to find and work a job they like.
The final semester asks students to participate in a 50- hour internship at sites like the USU Campus Store, Aggie Blue Bikes, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art and the Utah Conservation Corps.
“Last year, we had 11 graduates, and all 11 graduates received the Aggies Elevated certificate,” McKnight said. “Four students also got an associates degree with their certificate, so that’s huge. They did it all the same as a traditional college student.”
The rest of the Aggies Elevated coursework is up to the student.
“We’ve had students in most 1010 courses that the university offers,” McKnight said. “Literature, media and movies, whatever they want to take.”
Students live in the dorms and are afforded the same degree of self-sufficiency any of their peers have.
“It just gives them so much freedom,” McKnight said. “You’re going to live in the dorm and do your own thing. Nobody’s telling you what to do or how to live your life. For so long these opportunities haven’t been granted to people with disabilities because society infantilizes these individuals.”
As part of the program, students work with a peer mentor for 10 hours a week, receiving support with whatever aspect of college life they have questions about.
“This peer mentoring relationship works differently for every student,” McKnight said. “If a student wants homework help, then they work on homework. If they want to use the bus, they go and learn how to use the bus. If they want help with laundry — it’s very different.”
Reagan Wengreen is a graduate student studying social work and a peer mentor in Aggies Elevated.
“It’s been really good,” Wengreen said. “I did not have any experience with disability before, but I knew that I loved and wanted to work with people, so it was an easy fit.”
Stereotypes surrounding disability have shaped the way people act, which is one aspect of discrimination the program aims to break down.
“People think there’s a certain way that you have to be or act, or you have to know a certain amount of things before you can interact with this population,” Wengreen said. “That’s just not true. They’re humans, and if you know how to talk to people you’ll be fine.”
Close bonds are formed between student and mentor as they progress through the program.
“It has been very fulfilling,” Wengreen said. “The fulfillment comes after a lot of slow work, but it’s fulfilling, and I love the students a lot.”
Lilly Hettinger is a second-year integrated college and community studies major in the program. At a panel on Feb. 23 hosting students and mentors from the program, Hettinger emphasized the level of care found in Aggies Elevated.
“The Aggies Elevated staff doesn’t just care about your homework or schoolwork,” Hettinger said at the panel. “They care about everything about you, and they care about your mental health. They’re my second family.”
Hettinger is currently working with kindergarteners and preschoolers who are hard of hearing and utilize hearing aids as part of her internship.
“It’s taught me what it’s like to work at a school and with kids,” Hettinger said. “Last semester, I was working with kids with autism, cutting up snacks and observing the teachers.”
Joe Hayden is a second-year technology systems and advanced manufacturing major in the program working on his internship in the Space Dynamics Laboratory as a mechanical designer.
“I create a lot of mechanical parts,” Hayden said at the panel. “I create sketches and use tools such as extruding, revolving, cutting and a lot of other tools.”
Hayden advised students to reach out to the mentor and staff support systems within Aggies Elevated during difficult times.
“If you’re struggling with your first semester or any semester, you can always ask any staff or mentor,” Hayden said at the panel. “They would always be happy to help. I’ve had struggles in some of my classes and asked them for help, and they’ve done so many things to help.”
According to McKnight, college students who don’t have disabilities traditionally have little chance to create relationships with students who do.
“It’s awesome because it provides students without intellectual disabilities opportunities to interact with students with intellectual disabilities,” McKnight said. “Research is clear that bias and discrimination decrease when people have personal exposure to people who are different from them.”
Factors such as funding and staffing have prevented programs like Aggies Elevated from expanding across the state and nationally. USU Logan and USU Eastern in Price are currently the only campuses to have a residential program.
“We accept a very small fraction of the students who want to come because we’re it,” McKnight said.
Because funding is so low, Aggies Elevated students pay full tuition, plus a $4,000 fee to cover the cost of resources. According to McKnight, programs like Aggie Elevated are difficult to incorporate because expenses are so high.
“Most programs charge $20,000 to $40,000 extra,” McKnight said. “We are truly low-cost in comparison, but that’s still a lot of money. We don’t save one dollar, it all goes back into the program.”
McKnight hopes through legislative change, donors and exposure, funding can increase for the program without having to increase tuition for its students.
Another major challenge the program faces, according to McKnight, is not being taken as a fully legitimate college program.
“It’s the misunderstanding that our students are somehow not college students when they are 100%,” McKnight said. “They are every bit as admitted as a USU student with A-numbers and transcripts.”
McKnight hopes the program is understood not as a source of pity, but as a means to stand on equal footing as any college student.
“It’s not a charity thing,” McKnight said. “This is a group of people that should have the same opportunities to grow, learn and experience life the same as every other student.”
Empowering students to become self-determined citizens and participate in college alongside their peers is the primary goal of the program.
“Most families don’t even know that your kid with an intellectual disability has the potential to go to college,” McKnight said. “It’s empowering people to think bigger. We have 10 years of graduates. You’re not blazing your own trail, you can do this.”
Aggies Elevated makes possible the main goal of USU — to provide all of its students with equal access to education.
“Utah State’s mission is to be the university for all,” McKnight said. “You don’t have all if you leave out a whole group of people that have disabilities, so to me that should be and is the culture of our university.”