{"id":6044,"date":"2015-06-08T11:29:52","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T15:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=6044"},"modified":"2022-03-23T14:29:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T18:29:55","slug":"bridging-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/bridging-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridging Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Young<\/a>If you are walking through the Hicks Center or across the Quad on a sunny weekday afternoon, you may run into senior Rosie Tobin<\/strong> with groups of campus visitors. These visitors are not prospective students, and Tobin is not a tour guide\u2014she is an ambassador, building bridges between K and the larger community.<\/p>\n

Tobin\u2019s guests are students in the Young Adult Program (YAP), a service for people aged 18 to 26 on the autism spectrum coordinated through the College\u2019s Center for Civic Engagement<\/strong><\/a>. Tobin helps facilitate conversation and social interaction between YAP students and with members of the K community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus is really on relationship building between students, because people who are on the autism spectrum have, generally, a hard time with social interaction, social cues, and communication,\u201d said Tobin.<\/p>\n

The YAP students take two hours out of their week to come to campus and make these connections. The rest of the week, they spend in a classroom setting learning life skills, such as cooking, riding the bus, and managing money, according to Tobin.<\/p>\n

While the benefits of the YAP students\u2019 time on K\u2019s campus are immeasurable for them, Tobin also highlighted the educational benefits for those who are not on the autism spectrum, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think mental health is somewhat of a taboo topic. I think people don\u2019t really know how to talk about it,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t really know the right language to use or don\u2019t really know how to interact with people who are different than them\u2014people who look the same as them, but act differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serving those who face hardships is a passion of Tobin\u2019s, which she attributes in large part to Professor of English Bruce Mills<\/strong>\u2019 first year seminar \u201cCrossing Borders: Autism and Other Ways of Knowing,\u201d which introduced her to the topic.<\/p>\n

It was then that she made the connection with YAP and developed a commitment that would lead her to be the programs\u2019 Civic Engagement Scholar this past academic year.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I\u2019ve done has increased my drive to work with people who don\u2019t always receive the resources they need,\u201d said Tobin.<\/p>\n

Text by Matt Munoz \u201914; Photo courtesy of Rosie Tobin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are walking through the Hicks Center or across the Quad on a sunny weekday afternoon, you may run into senior Rosie Tobin with groups of campus visitors. These visitors are not prospective students, and Tobin is not a tour guide\u2014she is an ambassador, building bridges between K and the larger community. Tobin\u2019s guests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[43,13,38],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-6044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","tag-community","tag-service-learning","tag-students"],"yoast_head":"\r\nBridging Borders - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you are walking through the Hicks Center or across the Quad on a sunny weekday afternoon, you may run into senior Rosie Tobin with groups of campus\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/bridging-borders\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bridging Borders - News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you are walking through the Hicks Center or across the Quad on a sunny weekday afternoon, you may run into senior Rosie Tobin with groups of campus\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/bridging-borders\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-08T15:29:52+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-23T18:29:55+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2015\/06\/obinPicture.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"212\" \/>\r\n\t<meta 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aria-label=\"archive of category Students\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/students\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Students<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/community\/\" rel=\"tag\">community<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/service-learning\/\" rel=\"tag\">service-learning<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/students\/\" rel=\"tag\">students<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/bridging-borders\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/bridging-borders\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/bridging-borders\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2015\/06\/obinPicture.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6045 size-full\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2015\/06\/obinPicture.jpg\" alt=\"Young Adult Program participants\" width=\"600\" height=\"212\" \/><\/a>If you are walking through the Hicks Center or across the Quad on a sunny weekday afternoon, you may run into senior <strong>Rosie Tobin<\/strong> with groups of campus visitors. These visitors are not prospective students, and Tobin is not a tour guide\u2014she is an ambassador, building bridges between K and the larger community.<\/p>\n<p>Tobin\u2019s guests are students in the Young Adult Program (YAP), a service for people aged 18 to 26 on the autism spectrum coordinated through the College\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/servicelearning\/aboutus\/\"><strong>Center for Civic Engagement<\/strong><\/a>. Tobin helps facilitate conversation and social interaction between YAP students and with members of the K community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe focus is really on relationship building between students, because people who are on the autism spectrum have, generally, a hard time with social interaction, social cues, and communication,\u201d said Tobin.<\/p>\n<p>The YAP students take two hours out of their week to come to campus and make these connections. The rest of the week, they spend in a classroom setting learning life skills, such as cooking, riding the bus, and managing money, according to Tobin.<\/p>\n<p>While the benefits of the YAP students\u2019 time on K\u2019s campus are immeasurable for them, Tobin also highlighted the educational benefits for those who are not on the autism spectrum, as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think mental health is somewhat of a taboo topic. I think people don\u2019t really know how to talk about it,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t really know the right language to use or don\u2019t really know how to interact with people who are different than them\u2014people who look the same as them, but act differently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Serving those who face hardships is a passion of Tobin\u2019s, which she attributes in large part to Professor of English <strong>Bruce Mills<\/strong>\u2019 first year seminar \u201cCrossing Borders: Autism and Other Ways of Knowing,\u201d which introduced her to the topic.<\/p>\n<p>It was then that she made the connection with YAP and developed a commitment that would lead her to be the programs\u2019 Civic Engagement Scholar this past academic year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything I\u2019ve done has increased my drive to work with people who don\u2019t always receive the resources they need,\u201d said Tobin.<\/p>\n<p><em>Text by Matt Munoz \u201914; Photo courtesy of Rosie Tobin<\/em><\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6044"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9708,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6044\/revisions\/9708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6044"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=6044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}