College Success Services Nicole Birri, Med, Doctoral Student, University of Cincinnati Dr. Christina Carnahan, Associate Professor, Special Education, University of Cincinnati Dr. Matthew Sauer, Disability Services Office, University of Cincinnati Email: Christi.carnahan@uc.edu http://cech.uc.edu/education/ats.html

Advancement and Transition Services School of Education College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services Housed in the school of Ed. UC Launch (is intellectual disability program) on UC campus, two k-12 school districts send 5 students a day, integrated into the UC community, 18-22 year old, CEES-collaboration , employment and education synergy, high school collaboration 5 districts 40 kids total-14-16, all about employment and soft skills, payed employment in the community, intellectual dis. TAP –student are taking classes, intellectual Dis. 4 year college program. ASD student that are not degree seeking College Success Services-program for Degree seeking students with ASD Employment, significant ASD, just started in Oct.

College Success Services What is CSS? Collaborative program between ATS/School of Education, disability services, and the Academic Excellence and Support Services Initial pilot funded by grant from the UC Diversity and Inclusion office

Objectives of College Success Services for Matriculating UC Students with ASD College Success Services (CSS) was developed to recruit and retain students with ASD, with an emphasis on providing the supports needed to ensure these individuals not only enter and graduate from the University of Cincinnati (UC), but are successful academically, socially, and in employment opportunities such as co-opps and internships. CSS was founded on both a theoretical understanding of the cognitive profile of individuals with ASD and the emerging research regarding success after high school for these students.

CSS: Meeting the Unique needs of Learners with ASD CSS designed to target characteristics and cognitive profile of ASD that influence college success targeted social-communication special interests or repetitive behaviors executive function Anxiety related challenges that could potentially limit the success of students with ASD at UC.  Those were organized into (1) academic supports, (2) social supports, and (3) combined academic and social supports, all described below.

CSS Student Supports 2015-2016: Establish initial academic and social Supports Academic supports include pre and post teaching from academic coaches in AESS, organized study tables designed to meet the needs of students with ASD, and a one credit hour college success course. Social Supports: CSS provide peer mentoring, twice weekly social skills support meetings, and monthly social activities for students with ASD 2016-2017 Additional Supports Combining Academic and Social The combined academic and social support activities will specifically target students specialized areas of interests by developing mentoring relationships between faculty and students with ASD. Mentors will be recruited and assigned based upon the unique interests of each individual with ASD. Once matches were been made at the start of each school year, faculty and students engaged in individual meetings and large group activities twice per year

CSS Supports for Faculty A critical component of CSS is providing faculty and staff the resources needed to effectively educate individuals with ASD across campus. 15-16: Developed and disseminated ASD fact sheet to faculty 16-17: Develop and implement a series of online professional development for all faculty and staff 17-18: Identify a liason to support problem solving and collaboration between individuals with ASD and UC faculty and staff

Successes Overall all, students described program as socially valid Students enrolled in the CSS course reported that they found the study strategies, and time management strategies to be very helpful. Students reported enjoying spending time with their peer mentors outside of the classroom. All students stated that they would like to continue services in the future. Increased collaboration between three large organizations within the university that were previously operating in siloes

Barriers Collaboration Coordinating With three very large programs involved in the success of the program, it was difficult to find time to collaborate; getting started was the biggest challenge! Coordinating Coordinating student’s schedules with the academic coach's, peer mentors, professor mentors, DSO coordinator, and CSS coordinator was one of the most extreme barriers.