A program dedicated to preparing students with disabilities for work after high school just wrapped up another year — but this time it had a little Disney magic added.
Project SEARCH is a nationwide initiative helping students with learning disabilities enter the workforce by assisting them in developing social skills and providing work experience. Hawaiʻi has been a part of the project since 2017 and has since partnered with the Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center and the Pali Momi Medical Center.
This school year was the first time that Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa, was added as a third option. Four students from the Campbell-Kapolei Complex Area under the state Department of Education jumped on the opportunity to work with the team during the year-long program.
Ciara Batulan, a work-based learning teacher in the complex, joined Project SEARCH for the first time this year. She said she could watch the students grow their confidence in their abilities during work, as well as their social-emotional skills.
“Compared to their experience at school, they were always spending time with peers that were like them,” Batulan said. “But for them to spend time with peers that are nondisabled, and for them to interact with them, you could see how happy they were and they felt like they were a part of a team. That’s what we really saw in their growth, as far as being able to feel like everybody else.”
During the year-long program, the five-day workweek replaces their normal educational time that they would have gotten at their DOE school. The students, who are also called interns under the project, work normal work hours in guest services, resort operations, and some get to work on stage with cast members.
Aulani is the only site out of the three Oʻahu locations under the project that allows the interns to be in guest-facing roles, where they are interacting with customers every day rather than doing the behind the scenes work like they would at one of the medical centers.
Daniel Hee, the manager of family programs at Aulani, said that as much as the interns learned from the program and staff, the folks at the resort learned just as much, if not more, from the students.
“Now, when we have guests that come in with special needs or limitations, we know how to interact with them so that it makes it more comfortable for them,” Hee said. “After everything is said and done, they really made a magical moment for us, and we hope we did the same for them.”
The Aulani cast and crew hosted a graduation ceremony on-site for the four interns last month, recognizing their growth and success over the past year. Gennah Tanaka, another Campbell-Kapolei complex area teacher, said it was the crowning moment for the staff, the project crew and the interns.
“Some of our parents have shared with us that they've never seen so many people show love to their child in that way,” Tanaka said. “I think this first year kind of taught all of us that there are opportunities out there for young adults with disabilities, and when we set them to standard expectations with the right support, they really can do it.”
Hee noted that the interns helped him unlearn some ingrained assumptions he had about people with disabilities. He said he was initially timid and felt like he had to coddle them in certain situations, but by the end of the program, he could unravel that stigma.
“When someone says that they have special needs or some kind of a learning disability, a lot of times we just only focus on just that, thinking we have to change the way that we are to kind of adapt to them,” he said. “But what I've learned is that if we treat them as everyone else, I've seen them excel faster that way. Focusing on just the disability takes away from them as a whole person.”
Hee and the Project SEARCH team confirmed that the partnership will continue again next year, and they have already enrolled six interns to take on the new role.
