OWASSO, Okla. — A New Leaf’s Transition Academy welcomed a new group of students on Monday morning.
The academy is a two-year life and workforce skills training program for those 18 and older with developmental disabilities or autism.
A New Leaf said the goal they have for their students is strengthening their capability of living independently and securing a competitive workforce wage.
The academy’s first class of students entered in August of 2022.
“The Transition Academy is the first of its kind in Oklahoma,” said A New Leaf’s Chief Development Officer Maranda Figueroa. “This program will allow people with developmental disabilities and autism to get the needed training and skills to live and work on their own with support. This Transition Academy will change what is possible for those we serve.”
Figueroa said this class has a total of 11 students and four slots still available.
“It is a two-year program that emulates the college experience for people with developmental disabilities to help them have an alternative path to be prepared to live and work independently,” Figueroa said.
She said the students take 80 different courses over the two years they are in the program.
“So they’re learning a lot of different skills over the course of two years … ranging from money management to eating healthy grocery shopping, taking their own medication, how to seek and keep employment, lots of different things again focused on those two core goals of living and working independently,” Figueroa said.
A student of the program, Brandon Deems, said he is entering the program to learn how to live on his own.
“I mean, I feel bad for my mom because I have to leave her, but it’s gonna be good so I can have a better relationship with her in the future,” Deems said.
He said he hopes to learn how to communicate better and make some friends in the program, possibly some friends he can room with after graduating.
“We’ve seen such tremendous growth in these individuals far surpassing our expectations,” Figueroa said. “They are becoming their own individuals, taking classes at TCC, taught by our instructors, but they’re doing so, so well.”
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