By LEAH WANKUM
Managing Editor
(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — For the first time since the program’s inception, the university’s THRIVE program has been recognized for its inclusiveness with the rest of campus.

THRIVE, a two-year certificate program that helps students with developmental or intellectual disabilities prepare for independent living and the workforce, was named the recipient of the 2015 Missouri Governor’s Council on Disability Inclusion Award.

Karen Fahrmeier, the THRIVE coordinator, said THRIVE students are integrated with the UCM community in many ways, from taking classes with typical students to participating in student activities and working at internships across campus.

“For the first semester, they have two classes with our own staff, then all the other classes are integrated across campus,” Fahrmeier said. “We have our students participating in different activities and going to the different social functions on campus. They live in a residential hall and go to the dining halls with everybody.

“We are a program that is going to be having students all over campus in different ways. They’re not isolated.”

Michael Brunkhorst, the THRIVE instructional liaison, teaches the majority of THRIVE classes and is also liaison between the program and elective teachers that have THRIVE students in classes.

“I think it’s an awesome privilege for us to receive the award,” Brunkhorst said. “We try very hard to get our students as involved in the university activities and classes that we can. It’s all related to what the students’ desires are as far as careers, so I think it shows how much we do try to show how much our students are involved in every aspect of UCM.”

When Barbara Mayfield, director of accessibility services, submitted THRIVE’s nomination for the award, she said she tried to expand upon the concept of inclusion and how campuswide involvement has made an impact on THRIVE students.

“The majority of our THRIVE graduates are working and living on their own or in a community setting where they have a minimal amount of supervision,” Mayfield said. “They’re out in the communities, but the other side of inclusion is right here on campus and being involved in going to the athletic events, to the theater, having intramurals.”

Michelle Beehner, a second-year THRIVE student, is working an internship at the child daycare in Foster/Knox Building. She said she is studying to be a daycare teacher because she likes working with preschool kids.

“It makes me learn before I get a job, to help me learn, and the kids like coming to me,” Beehner said. “They want me to read a book to them. They like me to play with them.”

Beehner said she came to UCM from Arizona for the THRIVE program, especially because of its audiology services for deaf and hard-of-hearing students like her.

“(My parents and I) just wanted to find a good program for me, because I know college is really hard, so we thought I should have a good program,” she said. “I like it. I have friends to help me.”

After five years of working with THRIVE, Fahrmeier said the program has grown each year, with more and more involvement from various student groups and departments across campus.

“I think that the typical students and faculty and staff here at UCM are wonderful in the fact that they include our students in so many different ways,” Fahrmeier said. “And so, therefore, something like the inclusion award is being awarded not just for our program, but I think the way that the UCM family, I guess you’d say, welcomes and participates with our students.”

Not only are THRIVE students getting involved across campus, but typical students are also giving back to the program through volunteer activities and fundraisers.

Fahrmeier said one Integrative Business Experience company created by students, titled Central THRIVE, raised more than $6,000 to put in THRIVE’s student success fund, which goes toward scholarships for THRIVE students.

“It’s wonderful that we are able to have students – typical UCM students – who are wanting to provide for their own in a way by providing some funds that go into our scholarship program,” she said. “That was one typical way that we have participation from students from UCM that we hadn’t had before.

“Each year it seems like we’re able to grow in our outreach and how our students participate more and more with typical students on campus.”

Brunkhorst said receiving the inclusion award was a combined team effort by multiple departments and students across campus.

“I think it shows the passion that our staff has for our students and how much passion the students have, because it’s ultimately the students that do the work in the classes and that are learning and gaining from the experiences on campus like they never would if they were home,” he said.

As of May 2015, 36 students have completed the THRIVE program. For more information on the THRIVE program, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwWI9KFJcZU.