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How do internships contribute to student awareness of disabilities?
For answers, people often seek out Rebecca Herman '11.
Co-president of the Cornell Union for Disabilities Awareness – known as "CUDA" -- Herman completed an internship this year through ILR's Employment and Disability Institute.
At The National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth in Washington, D.C., she compiled research on disability history.
A College of Arts and Sciences government major, Herman also attended federal legislative meetings for the redrafting of the Workforce Investment Act.
The internship helped her become more knowledgeable about needs on the Cornell campus, Herman said. It also improved her skills in promoting awareness on disabilities and in engaging students in awareness activities, she said.
An ILR course entitled "Introduction to Disability Studies" led to the internship at the consortium, which is part of the Institute of Educational Leadership, Herman said.
Seeing legislation developed has helped her guide the club through issues such as the need for a sign language class at Cornell and for more collaboration between the disabilities awareness group and other students groups.
Some members of the disabilities awareness group have disabilities and some do not, Herman said.
"By having students with or without disabilities working together, we promote the idea of inclusiveness," said Herman, who plans to become a lawyer.
The organization's members are passionate about building awareness of disabilities at Cornell, said Herman.About two percent of the university's students have a physical disability, she estimates.
ILR faculty and staff member advise the student group and strengthen its credibility, Herman said.
ILR advisers to the group include Erin Sember, a technical assistance specialist, Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center-Northeast, located at ILR; Professor Michael Gold and Susanne Bruyère, ILR associate dean of outreach and director of the Employment and Disability Institute.
Herman, born profoundly deaf, said many students conceal their disabilities and "are not necessarily more involved in the group. However, members would like to invite more individuals with disabilities so that we can make changes together on the Cornell campus."
Most of the 20 or so active members of the group, Herman said, are enrolled in the College of Engineering or in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Meetings are held at 4:30 p.m. Mondays in Room 105 of Simpson Hall. Meetings are open to all students and faculty or staff members. More information is available on its website at http://rso.cornell.edu/cuda.
This spring, ILR will offer two courses which touch on some of the issues discussed by the Cornell Union for Disabilities Awareness.
Bruyère and Gold will teach Introduction to Disability Studies from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays Jan. 27 through March 10. Bruyère and Thomas Golden, Employment and Disability Institute associate director, will teach Disability and Employment Policy from 7:30 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. Wednesdays March 17 through May 5.