Photo courtesy of Mary Muszynski
Through an Express Grant that Naperville Education Foundation (NEF) funded in October 2024, 26 students who were enrolled in a Social Emotional Learning course at Connections Transition Services had the opportunity to engage in community experiences.
The grant, titled “Using Authentic Community Experiences to Reach Post-Secondary Outcomes,” was awarded to School Social Worker Mary Muszynski.
Proposed community outings included going bowling, having lunch in Downtown Naperville, seeing a movie and going out for ice cream. Outings were designed to allow neurodivergent students to experience and practically apply their social-emotional skills to pave the path to success in being actively involved in their community.
“Those types of recreation and leisure activities can be viewed as an extra to some and not an obvious part of education,” Muszynski wrote in the grant proposal. “For our students it is a functional necessity, as due to their disabilities, most are unable to visit these places independently, or even with their families.”
Before going on their first outing to Lou Malnati’s in December, students engaged in mini lessons to practice what the experience would be like.
“It was definitely a more engaging lesson than some of our others,” Muszyski said. “So many people were excited about it, there was buzz about it.”
The outing to Lou Malnati’s was highly successful for students’ communication goals.
In the grant follow-up, Muszynski shared that “students who have historically shared little, expressed thoughts on topics ranging from what they were looking forward to eating, to their families, to the preferred interests of themselves and others using total communication.”
One student in particular showed a new level of engagement with her Augmentative and Alternative Com- munication (AAC) device.
“Seeing the way she stepped into it when she was directly asked for her order by the server and was given ample wait time and we were all sit- ting there honoring her, I was blown away with how proficiently and well she displayed navigating her device,” Muszynski said. “I saw the power of providing real life experiences and how this particular student visibly enjoyed it and it showed that she was engaged authentically.”
Restaurant staff treated students with dignity and respect during the outing, adding to their positive experience.
“We went over the course of two days and we had the same server,” Muszynski said. “It was really heartwarming to see somebody, a stranger, engage with our students.”
With the success of the outings funded through the Express Grant, Connections leaders plan to integrate similar outings into coursework in future years.
“It was so encouraging to hear, ‘here’s the money, let’s take a chance on this,’ from NEF,” Muszynski said. “Now with us being able to measure those results, we’re talking about allocating funds for this for next year. We now have data to show that this has been a beneficial experience.”
Connections Transition Services is evolving with district and student needs. The program offers a bridge between high school and young adulthood for 18-to-22-year-old students with unique needs.
“People don’t know a ton about Connections, but we’ve had a principal for a few years now and we are being welcomed with the benefits of being a school,” Muszynski said. “It’s very affirming to me that we’re included in everything and that NEF, being a district-wide support organization, put in their vote of confidence in our goals and what we’re all about.”
