Partnerships

2nd Annual Career and College Seminar

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Lunch is provided.

Don’t miss these keynote addresses:

Dianne Primavera

Dianne Primavera is Chief Executive Officer for Susan G. Komen Colorado. She served in the state legislature for eight years as representative for Broomfield. During her tenure in the Colorado General Assembly, Dianne held terms as Chair and Vice Chair on several key committees. She was appointed to the Vocational Rehabilitation Services for the Blind Interim Study Committee. A cancer survivor, she founded and co-chaired the Cancer Caucus. The Statesman, the newspaper which covered the state capitol, named her the most effective member of the House for her final term.

The rule of thumb is that a good resume gets you an interview, but it’s in the interview that you get the job. How can you be successful at interviewing? With coaching and practice!

If you have never interviewed for a job before, if you haven’t interviewed for a job since becoming blind, if you haven’t interviewed in a long time, then a mock interview is just for you! It’s a low-pressure chance to get some coaching and practice.

During our April 17 career and college seminar at CCB, Making Connections that Work for You, you can sign up for a series of three mock interviews as one of the afternoon breakout sessions. Yes, you’ll do three short mock interviews in a one-hour period!

Whirling overhead at all times are stars, planets – whole galaxies. Humans have always wondered at them and about them. Blindness is no impediment to curiosity, including in the area of astronomy, nor is there any reason blind people can’t learn much in this field, often thought to be too visual. Some have even become astronomers themselves.

So, with the help of Arapahoe Community College Astronomy Coordinator and Instructor Jennifer Jones, this month’s FAST (Fun Activities and Skills Training) Friday program for blind youth will teach about the stars with tactile graphics of constellations, 3D printings of telescopes, and, finally, a trip outside to see what is in Friday night’s sky. Members of ACC’s Astronomy Club will be helping out too. We’ll also learn a little about the science of sonification as it applies to studying various astronomical phenomena.

After spending much of the day in their chairs, giving their best in various Braille skills as part of the

Braille Challenge, participants in the Metro area competition found goal ball the perfect way to unwind.

It’s the third year we’ve hosted the event for Metro-area kids, which is organized in Colorado by the

Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind. Students scores on reading, writing and more are collected regionally and given rankings, then compared to scores across the country. Eventually, the Braille Institute in Los Angeles will bring the most competitive students there for a final competition.

In the meantime, there’s a little goal ball, some local and regional prizes and pizza for lunch!

We wanted to bring your attention to a couple of newspaper articles that appeared in November and brought attention to the Center. Both reflect great partnerships that help us ensure that our students can, as our tag line says, learn to “Take Charge with Confidence and Self-reliance!”

The first, from November 5, appeared in the Denver Post’s YourHub. It’s about our neighbor and partner, Angel Concept in downtown Littleton. The article isn’t about the Center, but it features one of our students who has been learning job skills there. For a number of years, we’ve counted on Angel Concept to also mentor one of our summer youth in the “Earn & Learn Program”, helping them gain valuable work experience.

Here’s the article by YourHubs Holly Graham:

Disadvantaged women get a chance to build confidence, learn retail skills at this Littleton boutique

With many students and the results of their projects, supplies ranging from clay to wax to stone and of course the tools to work with each, an art room can quickly succumb to forces best summed up in the statement:

“All things tend toward disorder.”

This may be a paraphrase and we certainly don’t recall who might have made it, unless it was Spock or Data on their respective iterations of Star Trek. But that statement sums up the state of things when Alex laBarre, a candidate for Eagle Scout and a member of Troop 457, asked if we had a project he could do as part of his final requirements.

I-Fly Denver invited us over on Monday to take flight and learn about the science around wind tunnels and things like force and resistance. There was math involved, just saying.

Then we got to experience push and pull full-body, so to speak. Here’s a story from CBS Denver Channel 4 last night:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/11/13/students-center-for-blind-skydiving/

Thanks to everyone at I-Fly Denver – we had a great time!

Here are a few photos from the Shared Visions reception at the Colorado Gallery of the Arts at Arapahoe Community College on Thursday night. Everyone got hands on with pieces from Nathan Abels’ painting and drawing classes. CCB students also had laser-cuts of drawings they made in Ann Cunningham’s art class with accompanying Haiku, and CCB alum Jenny Callahan had a number of stone carvings and a bronze in the show.

The Seniors art class had bowls thrown on the wheel in Katie Caron’s ceramics studio. Katie brought her daughter, who insisted on wearing sleepshades so she could try to identify the art tactilely.

The Friday Seniors took a walk around Sterne Park’s pond to do a little birding by ear with Ali Mayes from Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. It was a good day for various ducks and the ever-present Canada Geese!

Editor’s Note: Here’s the announcement from ACC for this year’s “Shared Visions” tactile art exhibit. It’s the fourth year we collaborated on this event, and a highlight of the fall for our students and staff. The show will include work by CCB students and perhaps from one or two staff members as well. Worth checking out! (Photos by Mike Thompson.)

Arapahoe Community College to host Shared Visions tactile art exhibit

LITTLETON, Colo. (Oct. 24, 2017) – Students from Arapahoe Community College and the Colorado Center for the Blind will present a collaborative and fully-accessible exhibit of multi-sensory and tactile art entitled “Shared Visions” from Nov. 9–22 at the Colorado Gallery of the Arts at ACC. Festivities include an opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 9, from 5 pm–8 pm.