The Transition Academy & The Hispanic Community
Written by Lorena Montesinos, Program Associate
For the 2023-2024 school year, Missouri has registered approximately 127,380 students. Of these, 31.1% (39,620) of the students have a diagnosed learning disability. Approximately 1 in 5 Latino students with disabilities faces difficulties in finding employment. This challenge is exacerbated by factors such as systemic inequalities and discrimination in the labor market (DisabilityStatistics.org) (National Disability Institute) (CDC).
Given that one of the main goals of The Transition Academy is to make economic inclusion a reality for young people with disabilities, this issue is of utmost importance to us. As part of our 2024 agenda, we began visiting Guadalupe Centers Charter High School and conducting activities with Latino students with disabilities; together, we explored their future professional interests. It is worth mentioning that the activity that impacted them the most was the use of virtual reality glasses.
As a result, our students were able to envision themselves performing work activities such as auto mechanics services, roofing and/or pool construction, and machinery supervision in the factory. Inspired by the success of this and other activities, the entire team at The Transition Academy is highly motivated to continue our activities in the next school year. We hope that, like Guadalupe, other schools with a high Hispanic population can benefit from our institution's academic programs.
Also note that we have added information to our website en Español for our Spanish-speaking families:
Website: https://thetransitionacademy.org/inicio/
Blog: https://news.thetransitionacademy.org/s/tta-en-espanol