Photography by Carmen Troesser
Deborah Baldini bubbles over with enthusiasm. She’s in charge of creating innovative initiatives at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and her latest is SUCCEED, a two-year residential program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Now in its second year, the program includes 26 students with a variety of disabilities, such as autism, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Freshmen live in Oak Hall in “a community of learning focused around inclusion,” says Baldini. In addition to SUCCEED participants, the wing includes students majoring in special education and social work, as well as students who have siblings or friends with disabilities. During the second year, SUCCEED students may live on any wing.
“After two years, our goal is that the student can live independently,” says Baldini.
All SUCCEED students take a special-education course called Transition, in which education majors learn to develop transition planning. “SUCCEED students are co-embedded in that class, and their goal is to build their own transition plans,” says Baldini.
Beyond the classroom, students engage in at least two social activities per week, as well as other aspects of college life, including Greek life. “The first time one of our students rushed, we were concerned,” recalls Baldini. “It turned out the son was a ‘legacy.’ Now, you see these young men having lunch together at the student center, going to basketball games—really hanging out.”
Baldini hopes SUCCEED will become a model for universities across the nation. The program also helps connect local companies with SUCCEED students for internships and jobs.
“SUCCEED is a little program that has enormous ripple effects,” she says. “This is really about community-building. It’s about diversity. There is a face that wasn’t included at our table before—and it needed to be there.”
