During the six months of her internship, UC UCEDD Intern Karly Saeks learned a lot, and contributed a lot.Karly started working with UC UCEDD during her spring quarter at the University of Cincinnati’s Transition and Access Program (T.A.P.), a college option for people with intellectual disabilities who want the full college experience. Students live in their own dorm, attend classes, and train in professional internships.
Which is how Karly came to work with UC UCEDD. Karly’s focus is on administrative work, and over the last several months, she helped UC UCEDD with several projects, like preparing training materials, updating the organization’s email distribution lists, and organizing a filing system.
In fact, Karly’s special talent is organization, a skill that served her team well. “Karly helped assemble a more comprehensive mailing list to disseminate information to families and professionals in our community. By helping analyze families by state, county, and age, I can now serve families better by directing the correct information for their specific needs,” said Janet Seide, Family Outreach Associate DDBP-TKOC.
Several other organization projects crossed Karley’s desk during her internship. She organized autism resources, toys for the team’s family clinic, email distribution lists, and lots of training materials. “Karly was a great help this summer with a few, large outreach parent and professional training sessions, which required a lot of administrative work in getting the materials and binders assembled and ready for the training day,” said Jennifer Gastright, Early Intervention Coordinator.
Karly’s outgoing personality is why she was chosen to help with UC UCEDD’s many conferences and training sessions, and could often be found at the registration table, greeting attendees and ensuring everyone has the proper handouts. “Karly is always willing to lend a hand to whatever needs to be accomplished, and does so with a positive attitude. She has such a great wit, hilarious frankness, and a great smile,” saidElizabeth Trenkamp, Family Navigator.
Although she’s leaving the team to go back to school for her senior year at UC, she is leaving the team with some protocols she developed for future T.A.P. students who might work with UC UCEDD. Her detailed instructions include information on how to navigate the badging process, copier instructions, riding the shuttle, binder assembly, and how to properly clean the clinic’s toys.
She moves back to UC’s campus next week, where hopefully her schedule will be slightly less busy than it is now. Five days a week she takes UC’s Bearcat shuttle from Blue Ash (where she lives this summer) to UC’s main campus, then takes a UC shuttle to the Eden garage, and walks to her office at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Best of luck, Karly as you go back to school for your senior year. UC UCEDD will be slightly less organized without you.