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Hi, I'm Cat Karwick. I'm working at Easter Seals Central Texas
at Headway in an assistive technology computer lab.
A lot of reasons. I needed a job, of course to be honest. But, I was faced with a year off of school for
financial reasons and I wanted to do something productive that would help other people and that
would really give me some good experiences.
I totally would! I've had my ups and downs, through the term. There's been a lot of difficult challenges.
And a lot of like…keep on keepin'on, I've been telling myself, but I've loved it.
I’ve loved all the experience I got, the people I've met… I've met some really good friends
and some really good people… And really like... the things on my resume
can’t be replaced with anything, there’s no way I could have gotten the experience I've gotten through
anything else, so I'm really grateful for it.
I work in an assistive technology computer lab. I do a bunch of different things within the lab.
We teach classes, budgeting classes, one-on-one with clients kind of whatever they need week to week,
pretty much. But, I also teach money management classes outside of that at ARCIL, and then volunteering
at all kinds of different places: the Red Cross, I was a tax volunteer, kind of
anything and everything I could find. So our main project is doing Indies' Outings and that is
with a small group of young adults…that we call "Indies," it stands for Independent Living. And we take them out
once a week into the community and do all kinds of different things. We go to the movies,
We go out to eat. we go to a lot of museums and libraries, they really like going to the library.
They like going bowling, and just trying to show them a lot of
free and inexpensive things they can do… Learn how to count their money, and make change,
and kind of work independently on doing day-to-day things. Riding the bus,
all kinds of stuff like that. It's a lot of fun!
>>Nicole: Ooh... I want to be queen!
[Laughing]
>>Nicole: What about you guys? Do y'all wanna wear any goofy hats for a second?
>>Kara: Come on Taylor, you like that! Come on, let's do it.
>>Nicole: There’s like a- I like the green golfing hat.
>>Kara: Yah! [background talking]
>>Cat: This is me being ridiculous.
>>Meg [off camera]: Oh, nice. >>Cat: That works for you, Justin.
I love it! >>Brenda: The beanie would not work for me.
>>Cat: Oh no? >>Brenda: No.
>>Meg: There you go! >>Cat: You look like you're ready to party.
>>Brenda: I am ready to party, what are you talking about?
I think that the greatest value that I've learned is just time management for sure and how to de-stress.
I’m sure I could learn those from other jobs, but working with people with disabilities,
I think brings a different kind of... a different kind of...
work environment, and a different kind of stress I think than I have experienced before. Just trying
to be really delicate with the situations that are at hand aren’t everyday situations, and that’s probably the biggest
...the biggest thing I’ve learned to deal with.
Do it! Just do it! Ahh, just kidding. I would say... to really understand that your term is going to be
what you make it. You really control the outcome of the year and there’s so many opportunities
that you can take or not take and really if you want to make it a positive experience
and you want to get a lot of job experience to build your resume, you can do that
and really, it's a good resource to help you reach whatever future goals you have…
it's a really good bridge for that. I would definitely recommend it.