‘Not just the typical college resource fair.’ Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired event helps students connect | Gazette Extra
JANESVILLE — After launching the event last year, the Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired brought back its resource fair on Friday, allowing students to connect with prospective colleges, universities, employers and organizations.
Christine Zastrow, one of the college and career readiness teachers at the center’s school on Janesville’s southside, said there were about 35 attendees between center students and others from around the state.
At this year’s event, there were 42 agencies from around the county and throughout the state, including representatives from Blackhawk Technical College, UW-Whitewater and Beloit College, as well as UW-Green Bay, UW-Platteville and UW-Stout, among others.
Also at the fair were local organizations like Janesville Transit System, Forward Janesville and the Rock County Clerk’s Office. Vision Forward, a Milwaukee-based organization that offers support for those who are visually impaired, also had a table, as did the Wisconsin Office of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
“That’s what makes our resource fair a bit more unique because transition students at this grade level need to understand the resources in all of those areas, not just the typical college resource fair. That might be appropriate for some students,” Zastrow said.
“Some students are going to go directly into work, and other students are going to have questions about ‘How am I going to get around in my community?’ and ‘What kind of transportation options are available in my community?’ ‘What am I going to do to make new connections on a social level?’ ‘What can I do to advocate for myself?’ and ‘What kind of support from people like me that understand me is there to be offered?’”
Center Director Dan Wenzel said the resources at the fair were “so important” because the students didn’t necessarily know what was out there.
“You can give somebody a list of resources or you can actually have them interact and see what is going to be helpful,” Wenzel said, adding that the introduction is crucial because it will give the student the idea of if they need to look into the resource more.
Zastrow said that networking can be powerful.
“Being able to connect a face and voice to the resources for our students makes them more comfortable with advocating for themselves, and if they already have their toes dipped into that realm, they are more likely to take those steps to continue,” Zastrow said.
“I think that the synergy by having blind people who were alumni, or whether they were alumni or not, the synergy of having our students meeting blind professionals is so important because that gives our students, ‘Hey, if Joe or Josephine blind person can do it, so can I,’” Wenzel said.
Elias Ticer, a senior at the school, helped organize the event, but also met with representatives of some of the organizations.
“I got to see all the work that went into this thing,” Ticer said.
Ticer called the event “great.”
“Lots of organizations came here to kind of share their information with the students,” Ticer said.
Josiah Heesen, a junior, just met with representatives from organizations.
“There’s so many awesome organizations and agencies here that we get learn more about and it will be very useful,” Heesen said.
Ticer’s favorite table was the UW-Whitewater booth. Heesen’s favorite was the UW-Madison physics department table.
“Going to the Whitewater booth helped me connect with someone at disability services, and hopefully go into paleontology when I get out of here,” Ticer said.
Ticer plans to go to college to major in anthropology. Heesen plans to go to college to major in cybersecurity.
Students were challenged to go to 20 tables to talk with representatives from the agencies. If they did, they would receive a baseball cap with the center logo on it or a Tumbler mug.
