Campus Director's Welcome

Welcome to Summit Campus, where we are Opening Doors to an Independent Future.

 

If you are on our website, you have a quirky, intelligent, and capable young adult on the spectrum you believe could be successfully enrolled in a college or vocational program. You recognize the value of an education, but you are primarily concerned about whether they have the skills necessary to navigate the opportunities and demands that students with learning differences confront as they move through their college experience. 

 

Can they manage their time? How will they connect socially? Will they just stay in their room? What about hygiene? Will they learn to make decisions for better or for worse and pivot when appropriate? Will they learn to access campus support and take advantage of their campus community and their surrounding city? Can they get counseling? How will they manage their finances, medications, their health? 

 

Most importantly, who can you talk to and trust, so you can take a step back?

 

Every parent considering a post-secondary program has these concerns. Transition skills and college readiness have become part of the national debate concerning individuals with Autism. In a recent research study conducted by the CDC, almost all teens with ASD participating in the study had a transition plan in place, but it was noted that many of these plans lacked a goal relating to postsecondary living arrangements, daily living skills and community participation.

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For our students on the spectrum, transition skills and social emotional learning maintain a critical level of importance.

 

I know this because I have been on this journey with my 24-year-old. I have done some things well, but have also learned some hard lessons. Given the option, I would have jumped at the opportunity to have him begin his college experience at a Summit Campus. In addition to being a mother of a child diagnosed with autism, I am an educator with expertise working with children with ASD and specializing in transition.

 

Summit Campus was created toprovide this critical support. We are a Living Learning Residential Community for young adults with ASD along with related diagnoses.  Our program is designed to empower them with the transition skills necessary to live a productive, rewarding life.

 

Please contact me directly at nkoppel@summitagencyma.com. It is our mission at Summit Campus, and my personal passion, to meet our residents and their families where they are and guide them through this time in their lives toward a promising future of their own design.