Today, Rachel starts week two of her classes at Missouri State University(MSU.) Based on her social media posts, she appears to be living the dream and appears to be very much like other college students. I will admit that most typical college students don’t have their picture on the front page of the local newspaper. The Springfield News-Leader did a great piece on the Bear POWER program – Inclusive MSU program opens doors to students with intellectual, developmental disabilities.

In the cyber age we live in, I can keep up with some of Rachel’s adventures through social media, but I can also practically pinpoint where she is by using a location tracking app shared by our family. For the first few weeks, she was supposed to text me when she was up in the mornings and when she was in her room for the night. She is flunking this assignment. Typical.

She has been to lunches and ice cream runs with new friends and people she already knew. Probably too many ice cream runs. Again, typical freshman.

Apparently, face masks are a thing for college girls these days. I received this from one of her friends the other night and it was on SNAP.

Thursday night, I texted her a good night at about 11:30. She responded that she was playing BINGO at the student union. Probably typical.

She has managed to find a ride to church, chose to go to a campus ministry event over a basketball game, made a friend who took her to a hockey game, and she made it to all of her classes the first week – sort of. This is my favorite story so far.

I have not tracked her every move, but I have tried to check on the location tracker to be sure she made it to her classes. Learning your way around a college campus can be a little daunting. Rachel has mentors and friends who can help her, but she sees asking for help as the ultimate in weakness. Friday morning, I noticed she had gone to the building where her public speaking class is held. Her class is in the afternoon and the room is a bit difficult to find, so I assumed someone was helping her to be sure she knew where to go.

A few hours later after class started, I noticed she was in her dorm room. I texted her, and she texted that she had already been to class. After a few confusing texts, I called her. She told me she had already been to class. I had checked the portal and her schedule had not been changed. I told her to go look at her schedule on her calendar. “You are supposed to be in class now.” She kept saying that she had been to public speaking and stated the room number and professor’s name. By this time, I had her confused and me for that matter. I was fairly confident she had gone to the class but at the wrong time. I made a call to the program director, and she said she would reach out to the professor.

As this is all developing, I received this Instagram message. “Hi I’m AM. I was in the ECCO program with Rachel in high school. I go to MSU and I’m really excited Rachel is in public speaking with me. I just wanted to to contact you and say if she ever needs anything, I’d be happy to help! I didn’t have your email and I knew I had seen you on her Instagram so I thought I’d message you here. I type my notes from class if she ever needs them. I am happy to study and practice speeches with her. I know she has a team of people, but I’m happy to help….. I had lunch with her today, too. She is so fun to be around!”   She also included her contact information. ECCO is our school district’s Early Childhood Careers Program. Her junior year, Rachel was part of the program which is designed to prepare students for careers in teaching. Rachel was the first person to with Down syndrome to be in the program, and the students come from all schools in our district. AM was from a different high school in our district.

I contacted AM and we confirmed that Rachel had indeed gone to the wrong section of her class. In the meantime, our Bear POWER director had communicated with the professor who didn’t realize until class was over that Rachel had been in the wrong section. The story continues as they are trying to figure out if AM and Rachel can officially be in the same class.

Some of you will understand why I think this story screams “inclusion works.” If Rachel had not been in inclusive classes in high school, she wouldn’t have known AM so this would not have happened. Of course, AM is pretty remarkable young lady, too.

Rachel had many big wins for the week. Making it to all of her classes was just one.

Mom’s big win: I didn’t check Rachel’s email for three days. We all lived.