PDFNorthStar Center Provides Students with Structured Path to Successful Independence
For many young people, words like structure, instruction and discipline sound like obstacles to what they truly crave: freedom.
But at NorthStar Center, an innovative transitional program for older teens and young adults, students learn that a guided and regimented beginning can lead them to a freer (and more successful) future than they ever imagined.
A Structured Start
Located in Bend, Ore., in the scenic foothills of the majestic Cascade Mountains, NorthStar Center teaches students the same thing that many ski instructors preach to newbies on the nearby slopes – fundamentals first, followed by a concerted effort, earns you the ability to carve your own path.
“This is meant to be their last program,” said Alice Huskey, NorthStar’s academic director, noting that the program is designed to help students transition into independent adulthood. “We want to make sure that our students can do the things they need to do to launch successfully into their adult lives.”
At NorthStar Center, the first phase of that successful launch occurs during a three-month orientation period.
“When students come into the program, we provide a lot of structure initially,” Huskey said. “The first two weeks are very structured, and their life is pretty well mapped out for them for the next eight to 12 weeks. A lot of what we do during those first two months is helping them learn how to structure their free time, how to plan for themselves and how to set goals for themselves.”
A Focus on Success
During these important initial weeks, the students focus on identifying personal strengths, assessing areas of improvement and laying the foundation for their bridge to adulthood.
“All of the students who come to us take our Academic Resource Center (or ARC) classes, which prepare them therapeutically and college prep-wise to move forward with an independent life,” Huskey said. “They take 12 classes in 16 weeks. They study goal-setting, time management and personal finance. They take academic refresher courses and they learn about issues related to recovery and independent living.”
For many NorthStar students, the thought of extended time in the classroom might bring back some frustrating memories – but Huskey and her colleagues are emphatic that past struggles shouldn’t preclude the students from expecting (and achieving) future academic successes.
“During the orientation phase, we spend a good amount of time looking at what their strengths are,” she said. “We do a learning styles inventory, we do a multiple intelligence assessment and we review any previous testing that might have been done.”
This personal inventory provides the students with essential tools with which to build that proverbial bridge to a brighter tomorrow.
“Before they leave orientation, they have created a learning strengths profile,” Huskey said. “So instead of saying ‘these are my problems and my disabilities,’ they come out of our orientation phase saying ‘these are my strengths, this is what I do well.’”
A ‘MAP’ to the Future
As they are orienting themselves to the NorthStar program, the students also begin working on a document that will guide their academic, therapeutic and individual living process: their Master Achievement Plan (MAP).
“Their MAP is a combination of things that the program has determined are useful for all students in our program. But in every step along the way after orientation, they have the opportunity to personalize these goals,” Huskey said. “For those who don’t do well with setting goals for themselves, we’ve got a lot of initial structure built in – and the ones who are ready to start creating opportunities for themselves have that freedom.”
Working on their MAP allows students to accomplish three significant tasks:
- They identify the goals and objectives that they need to achieve in order to make a healthy transition into independent adulthood.
- They determine the course of action that will take them from where they are to where they want to be.
- They evaluate their progress, and can adjust their actions and objectives as necessary.
“A lot of students are used to coming from a situation where they’ve been hand-held a lot, especially in regard to getting their school work done. We’re putting them on their own two feet -- you get to be an adult, and you get to take responsibility for your work,” Huskey said. “If they’re not working toward goals for themselves, we’re not helping them transition into independent living.”
An Atmosphere of Support
One of the most important lessons that students learn at NorthStar Center is a simple vocabulary clarification – namely, that “independent” doesn’t mean “alone.”
Though the program places a priority on developing self-reliance and personal responsibility, the goal isn’t to prepare students to “go it alone.” Instead, Huskey and her colleagues emphasize self-awareness and self-advocacy as a way of knowing when (and how) to ask for help.
“So many of our students, whether they’re gifted or whether they have a learning disability, don’t know how to ask for the accommodations and assistance that they deserve in order to be successful,” Huskey said. “They can all be successful if they get the support they need and deserve.”
An Emphasis on Empowerment
This effort to empower students to get the help they need involves educating them about themselves and encouraging them to identify sources of assistance.
If they have been identified as having a learning disorder, the students learn exactly how that disorder affects them – for example, they may need help taking notes, they may be best served by taping class lectures for later review or they may require additional adaptations to maximize their learning potential.
Armed with this knowledge, the students then need to take the next step of talking to their teachers, professors or other school personnel to ensure that they have access to the resources they need.
“We really encourage the students to take responsibility for their learning,” Huskey said. “Every day that they’re here, they’re getting an opportunity to do something different, to learn adult skills, to take another step toward adulthood.”
