Becoming Empowered

By Jillian Daley

How about this for a fact? North Marion School District has a whole off-campus educational program for young adults.

The program, called Empowered, provides lessons in independent living (laundry, cooking, problem solving), daily living (bathing, dressing, eating), work skills (assembling furniture, stocking books, pricing items), and functional academics (reading signs, making change, telling time). 

Empowered, anchored in Woodburn, effectively guides students through the transition to adulthood. Many of the program participants are High School seniors, as local educators designed Empowered for ages 18 to 21, but a student must be enrolled in the Special Education program to qualify for Empowered. 

“Empowered was created to help students with disabilities know what their next steps are,” says Sarah Hilgert, the Special Education Teacher placed at the Empowered site whom the kids know as Ms. Sarah. “The Empowered program provides many different vocational benefits.”

The program helps shape students into independent adults, carrying them out into the community for activities, such as: learning about recycling at Garten, piecing together items (projects include radios and shelves) at various locations, and stocking books at the Wilsonville Public Library. Students also visit shopping centers, buy groceries, and take cooking lessons. Not only do these community outings serve as learning opportunities, these excursions thrill the students.

Paulina Rubio-Saavedra, a twelfth-grader, has a favorite place, “I like the library.”

Anything involving tucking into a baked good or two brightens twelfth-grader Giovanni Navarro Guzman’s day.

“Cookies, brownies — brownies, happy,” Navarro Guzman says.

Twelfth-grader Michael Medina says he eagerly anticipates any day involving devouring spicy chicken sandwiches from Burger King.

But Medina also says he loves just being a part of the program every day, saying it's “home.”

As a small group of just nine students who spend every day together and have regular outings with their instructors, Hilgert notes that she and Special Education Instructional Assistant Ana Elizondo Avalos, a.k.a. Ms. Ana, and the students have established close ties.

“It’s definitely a community,” Ms. Sarah notes. “You can feel the love that Ana and I have for each other and for all of these students when you get here.”

As they learn, the students have a great deal of support from Ms. Sarah and from Ms. Ana, who is Spanish-English bilingual. She says the students who grew up speaking Spanish may know English well, but, like most everyone, they feel more comfortable communicating in their first language. 

“They’re always asking questions, and I’m always there to help them,” Ms. Ana says.

That’s the whole idea behind the program, giving local special education students a place where educators will support their growth into adulthood. But the program hasn’t always been an option for North Marion students. Four years ago, Woodburn School District’s program reached capacity, so North Marion rolled out Empowered to provide students with crucial skills.

“We started the Empowered program because we believe students need life skills they aren’t taught in a regular High School,” explains Director of Special Programs Patrick McArthur, who administers the program alongside High School Principal De Ann Jenness. “The students benefit from time in the community to learn new skills, gain self-confidence, and learn how to navigate their world.”

McArthur says it’s bloomed into what he had hoped, a place where young people can not only learn and grow, but, with a little help, unlock their own potential.

Maybe that’s why Medina calls it “home.”

To share your story about the North Marion School District, email Communications Specialist Jillian Daley at jillian.daley@nmarion.k12.or.us.