“A student enrolled in the program, JP, was an intern with the Pride of Arizona last semester. “My classmates and teachers at my Phoenix high school all wished we had a program similar to Project Focus at ASU.”Īs peer mentors, Lemon, Maxwell and O’Neill have all experienced very impactful student success stories. “I remember hearing about Project Focus in high school and feeling really inspired by it,” O’Neill said. There are not many others in the United States like it. Other programs like Project Focus are hard to come by. "This is something that I'd read about in class, but I've never really seen.” They were going to pay, and the workers were looking at me instead of the student because they have a disability,” O’Neill said. “I was going to the Union and getting food with a student. One of those experiences was at the Student Union Memorial Center. “I've had so many experiences where I'm like, wow, I would have never realized that was the reality.” “I never realized how difficult it can be to be a student with a disability at a place like a college campus,” O’Neill said. “They're just my friends and it's like hanging out with my friends.” RELATED: Muralist hopes to bring art to University of Arizona communityīeing an advocate has meant a lot for Anna O'Neill, who is triple majoring in speech pathology, psychology and Spanish. “It's not so much like being a support now,” Maxwell said. Through moments like these, relationships are built and friendships are formed. “We can do anything from going into classes with the students and assisting them and taking notes and helping with assignments to just hanging out and eating lunch,” Maxwell said. When it comes to the day-to-day life of a peer mentor, Maggie Maxwell, a rehabilitation studies major, said she and her fellow mentors serve as additional support and as advocates for the students. “Our role as a mentor is to be there, assess where they're at, and how much support they need with any task, and then to be as minimally invasive as possible. Learn that there are consequences to their actions,” Lemon said. “You want to let students figure things out for themselves. Lemon explained that the goal is for students to learn how much they can do on their own. “You want to provide as little support as necessary, but as much support as is needed.” “Our goal is to be as hands-off as possible,” Lemon said. Lemon said being a successful peer mentor means understanding exactly how much “mentoring” is needed. Peer mentors form the foundation for student success in the program. “We are getting them ready and integrated into a fast-paced lifestyle that they will be seeing when they get a job.” “We assist students to go from a high school, which is usually an isolated or segregated special education setting, into a real-world work environment,” Lemon said. The Church of Jesus Christ supports bills like the new one in Arizona because they do these very things.Stories of Resource Insecurity: How one UA student reconciles his past by helping others plan for their futures Oaks of the Church’s First Presidency called for “a new, workable balance between religious freedom and non-discrimination.” He pointed people to a “better way” that focuses on the Christ-centered virtues of loving, listening, respecting, negotiating, persuading, balancing, tolerating, cooperating, reconciling, accommodating - any peaceful means that focus on the common good and “resolve differences without compromising core values.” Last November at the University of Virginia, President Dallin H. As a Church statement said in support of the latter, “the nation is more united when diverse individuals and groups can work cooperatively to advance sound policy.” The Church has supported religious freedom and non-discrimination bills in the past, including one in Utah in 2015 and another at the federal level in 2019. It is our position that this bipartisan bill preserves the religious rights of individuals and communities of faith while protecting the rights of members of the LGBTQ community, consistent with the principles of fairness for all. The Church is pleased to be part of a coalition of faith, business, LGBTQ people and community leaders who have worked together in a spirit of trust and mutual respect to address issues that matter to all members of our community. The following statement, distributed to media after the event, expresses the Church’s view of the proposed legislation for the Grand Canyon State: Representatives from the Church of Jesus Christ gathered Monday morning with local government and community leaders on the Senate Lawn of the Arizona State Capitol, where the bill was first announced. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is lending its support to a bipartisan bill in Arizona that was filed with the state’s legislature on Monday, February 7, 2022.
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