Janel “Jaycee” Miller is a journalist at TAPinto Camden, where this was originally published.

An innovative program at Camden Prep, part of the Uncommon Schools network, is pairing students with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia and other neurodevelopmental disabilities with younger students with similar disabilities.

The program, called Eye to Eye (E.T.E.) was launched earlier this year to help students in middle school learn from high school students how to overcome obstacles and maximize their potential.

“Our students need to be in communities where their differences are celebrated, not just tolerated,” said Tonya Ballard, special education coordinator for Uncommon Schools Camden Prep High School, told TAPinto Camden.

“(E.T.E.) allows students to gain the confidence to speak out in whole school situations and the community at large,” Ballard said.

As part of the program, Camden Prep High School juniors and seniors come to Camden Prep’s Copewood Middle School twice a week to mentor sixth graders.

“These students are realizing that in a community that they all have differences, but they all have similarities too, that can bond each other,” said Kristen Newhart, special education coordinator at Copewood.

“Many of them have expressed how they feel and can express their true feelings and true self here, which is such a beautiful thing that they feel they can be so vulnerable and authentic,” Newhart said.

The mentors were trained before being assigned a mentee, according to Clary Mary Feliciano, an 18-year-old mentor at Camden Prep’s High School who has dyslexia and ADHD. 

“It gave us things that you should not do, things that you should do, the stuff that we are doing, introduced us to what neurodiverse is (and) it explained more what we as mentees are trying to do overall,” Feliciano said.

Training on what to do if someone in E.T.E. becomes sick, sad, depressed or hurt while in the E.T.E. classroom or wanted to leave the E.T.E classroom was also included in the training, she said.

The program’s advisors and students meet face-to-face for a half hour each Tuesday and Thursday of the school year, Ballard said.

“Usually, there is some vocabulary word that each lesson is grounded in… and (providing an) understanding what that means,” Ballard said. “Every art project that they work on is designed to help them to explore more, more deeply, whatever that terminology is.” 

Training on what to do if someone in E.T.E. becomes sick, sad, depressed or hurt while in the E.T.E. classroom or wanted to leave the E.T.E classroom was also included in the training, she said.

The program’s advisors and students meet face-to-face for a half hour each Tuesday and Thursday of the school year, Ballard said.

“Usually, there is some vocabulary word that each lesson is grounded in… and (providing an) understanding what that means,” Ballard said. “Every art project that they work on is designed to help them to explore more, more deeply, whatever that terminology is.” 

The word of the week when a TAPinto Camden reporter stopped by the Thursday before winter break was self-esteem. Students were discussing what makes them different. Autumn Jones, 11, proudly announced she sings differently than many others. The self-esteem lesson laid the groundwork for the superhero projects that the students will make when they return from winter break, Ballard said.

Other words students have learned include neurodivergence and self-awareness, according to Ballard. When the latter word was introduced, the art project consisted of students making pairs of glasses that displayed their vulnerability from craft supplies, according to Feliciano. 

“Pedro (made) glasses with pipe cleaners and he put tape over them and he put a googly eye on it because sometimes it is hard for him to see,” said Feliciano, referring to her mentee, Pedro Cintron, a 13-year-old student with ADHD.

“I learned some tricks to help me focus more in class,” Cintron explained. “I was told to take a step back, breathe and focus and actually try to do what I was trying to do.”

E.T.E. participants also said they have learned other things from E.T.E. besides the meaning of words and designing crafts relevant to that word.  

“I have learned that sometimes admitting you are neurodiverse is hard,” Feliciano said. “Especially with getting bullied as a child, it is really hard to admit that I learned differently. But it is okay.”

Jones said she learned that confidence is the key.

“Sometimes I am shy to sing in front of somebody,” she said. “I just need to be more confident and just let that side of me show.”
Cintron told TAPinto Camden he liked how E.T.E. let him learn with his friends. He added he wanted to study engineering after high school to learn how to design cars.  

Feliciano also said she was interested in engineering. She also said she has a professional Plan B: Culinary arts, noting, “I did bake cupcakes today. Baking is my go-to when I am stressed out or anxious or a little depressed and I do not know why.” Feliciano also has a professional Plan C: Business. She admitted that Plan C could be used with either Plan A or Plan B.

A long-term goal of E.T.E. is for the mentors and mentees to develop their own ideas for words and craft projects, Ballard said. Another long-term goal is to instill enough confidence in the high school participants to present to students the same age as them, Newhart said.

About seven of the 93 students at Camden Prep Copewood Middle School and Camden Prep High School currently participate in E.T.E., according to Victoria Glover, Uncommon Schools Camden Prep’s regional senior director of external affairs. 

Although E.T.E. began with mostly sixth-grade students due to the high number of students with learning disabilities in that grade, there are plans to open the program to more fifth and seventh graders soon, according to Newhart and Ballard.

Photo courtesy of Camden Prep.