Category: Newsletters

Celebrating the Graduation of our 8th Cohort …

And getting ready for our Expansion this summer!!!

A Huge Thanks to all who made our 

Winter Program so Successful

We are so grateful to our fabulous employer partners, staff, families, donors, and of course, our BroadFutures interns for helping us conclude our incredibly successful winter program. We cannot believe how fast the time went, and are so impressed with the equally fast growth that we saw from our interns!!

At our interns’ final presentations,  we celebrated their successful completion of the  program and recognized our employer partners for all of their outstanding support. We are so proud of all our interns, so grateful to our amazing employer partners, and equally indebted to the support of our families and staff. We feel very fortunate to have such an incredible community supporting us!!!

BroadFutures is GROWING…. 

Expansion is happening  this summer.

BroadFutures is in its 4th year of programming, and soon to celebrate our 5th year of incorporation!!!!  A s a fast growing young non-profit, we are THRILLED to announce that we will be doubling our cohort size this summer, and adding another class of interns!!!!!!!!!!  

We will be WELCOMING MORE THAN 30 interns and ADDING 10 new employer partners to our ever growing group of inspired employers who recognize the benefits of a diverse workforce and the excellence of our program in consistently sourcing highly talented, prepared young adults for internship positions.

Stay tuned… as later this month we will have a snapshot of our new employer partners and our incoming cohort.

Welcoming our New Program Director, Amanda Lindsell

We are thrilled to welcome our new addition to the BroadFutures staff!, Amanda Lindsell!! Amanda has joined us as our new Program Director and is excited to be helping us to welcom our 9th cohort this summer.

 

Amanda is a passionate and experienced Vocational Counselor and non-profit  administrator who believes strongly in the benefits of a diverse workforce. She is excited  to bring her wealt h of knowledge in disability employment to BroadFutures. 

Prior to  joining BroadFutures, Amanda served as Program Coordinator at the Jewish Social  Service Agency (JSSA), where she helped to launch a state-of-the-art employment  program that focused on integrative, competitive employment for individuals with a  variety of disabilities. Within the first two years of her tenure, job placement rose by  450% and record numbers of individuals were placed in full-time employment. During  her time with JSSA, Amanda was also responsible for overseeing the Developmental  Disability Administration program and launching the Pre-Employment Transition  Services program. Additionally, Amanda provided one-on-one career exploration, career  counseling and placement for individuals with Learning Disabilities and Autism  Spectrum Disorder. Prior to her employment with JSSA, Amanda worked at  The Outcomes Service at The Treatment and Learning Centers, providing job  development, placement, coaching and case management to individuals with  disabilities.  Amanda received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland,  Baltimore County. She is a D.C. area native, enjoys traveling the world with her family,  and speaks Spanish.

Employer Spotlight: Atlas Corps

	Intern Joshua with Atlas Corps Supervisor, Cal

Intern Spotlight

Daniel Kawecki j oined  BroadFutures as an intern in the  Sum mer of 2017, where he  interned for the American Psychologi cal Association (APA). He is 20 years old, and from Silver Springs, MD. At his internship, Daniel was able to utilize his creative skills to construct new posts for the APA I nstagram page, spreading awareness on matters like disability, bullying, and breast cancer. Daniel was also given an opportunity to expand upon his creative writing abilities, drafting an article in the APA newsletter on his time at Broa dFutures and our mission. Daniel said that he wanted to become a B roadFutures intern to learn how to share his ideas and enhanc e his decision-making, and APA helped him make great progress in ac hieving these goals. 

After his time at BroadFutures, Daniel returned to Mercyhurst University where hopes to receive a degree in English. We are so thrilled that Daniel has been hired this summer as an intern at RespectAbility where he will further be involved in advocating for people with disabilities . 

Daniel had this to say about his time at BroadFutures,  “BroadFut ures was an invaluable experience for my first few steps into the professional world. Above all the skills I learned, the most valuable was mindfulness. To this day, I practice it, and it has helped me grow both professionally and socially.”

Thanks, Daniel! Good luck in your new position!!

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BroadFutures Interns and Mentors enjoying the Game on 4/13.

We are excited to be wrapping up another successful spring at BroadFutures!  With only a few days left in our Winter Program, we cannot believe how the time has flown and are so proud of the incredible growth our interns have shown. It has been an amazing program, and we are so thankful to our wonderful interns, parents, employer partners, and staff for helping us all to achieve success.

As a reward for all of our hard work, our interns and staff enjoyed a trip to Nationals Park on April 13th. We would like to give a HUGE thanks to Nationals Park for sponsoring our tickets and hosting us for a fun evening. 

We are looking forward to our upcoming Summer Program, as we expand our program, develop new partnerships, and welcome new incredible interns . 

Normal Isn’t Real: 

Succeeding with Learning Disabilities and ADHD

BroadFutures’ Movie Screening and Q&A!

On March 30th, we hosted a screening of the documentary  Normal Isn’t Real: Succeeding with Learning Disabilities and ADHD, which  highlights the professional journeys of 4 individuals with LD/ADHD, including both their struggles with learning differently and their ultimate successes. We were thrilled to be joined by nationally known Producer and Filmmaker Krys Kornmeier, as well as one of the film’s featured professionals,  LeDerick Horne, a disability advocate, poet, and entrepreneur. Krys and LeDerick  led an open Q&A following the film with our interns and members of the audience.  

We extend a HUGE thank you to Krys, for having the insight and creativity to bring these stories to light, and to LeDerick, for his courage and tenacity in telling his story so that others may be inspired by his example.

Alec Callahan is a 21-year-old young man from Rockville, MD who was a member of BroadFutures’ first cohort!!! During his time at BroadFutures, he interned at The AES Corporation, an international energy company. He was responsible for a variety of administrative projects within the Human Resources Department. It was an exceedingly positive experience for both Alec and AES. AES was thrilled to have Alec on their team, and praised his determination, motivation, and unparalleled ability to focus.

Currently, Alec is enrolled as a student at Montgomery College. He is also working at NIH as a Laboratory Technician with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Alec has been working at NIH for almost two years now and has loved every moment of it. When reflecting on his time with BroadFutures, he commented:

“BroadFutures made me come out of my shell and helped me to be inspired to work and have fun and show my skills at the workforce.”

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Landmark College President, Dr. Peter Eden, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with our Co-Founder, CEO, and President Carolyn K. Jeppsen.  Starting this summer, three Landmark College students will take part in a Work Based Learning Semester, during which they will participate in our summer program.  “We’re very excited to give students the opportunity to take part in the BroadFutures program,” said Jan Coplan, Director of  Career Connections at Landmark College  (pictured at left, below). “ Nationwide, less than half of the students with learning disabilities find employment within two years of graduating,” said Coplan. “We believe the education Landmark College provides combined with the BroadFutures program will have a positive impact on those numbers.”

“I hope our interns have enjoyed their experience with us as much as our team has enjoyed working with them. Ensuring access to integrated and meaningful employment for individuals with disabilities is a top priority of mine. That is why I introduced the Transitions to Independence Act, which would provide incentive payments to states that meet benchmarks for expanding integrated employment for people with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities can make such a meaningful contribution to the workplace and it’s crucial that they have the chance to do so.

”

Thank you to Senator Van Hollen and your amazing staff, and we look forward to continuing our partnership!!!

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Congratulations to our Interns!

JOIN US at the MOVIES!!!!

We will be watching

Normal Isn’t Real: Succeeding with Learning Disabilities & ADHD 

at the Avalon Theatre on March 30 

BroadFutures Presents at 

The LEARNING DISABILITIES ASSOCIATION 55th 

ANNUAL CONFERENCE!!!!

We were excited to have the opportunity to attend and  present at the LDA conference this month.  We presented on the benefits of  internships as  successful prep aration for college. We made many new connections  and helped spread the word about BroadFutures’  unique mission!! 

We received very positive feedback about our work to date and what the future holds for our program. 

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Happy New Year from BroadFutures! 

We are working to make 2018 our best year yet!

Our Winter 2018 program starts up at the end of this month with a brand new cohort of fabulous interns!  This winter we have incredible employer partners who will offer an unforgettable experience to our young adults in the program.

Thank you for all the support you have shown us so far! We are excited to continue building our programs to be better every year!

And Welcoming Back Old Friends… 

In addition to our new employers, we are excited to be partnering with a new office at The George Washington University – The Animal Research Facility, and our long standing partners,  The American Association for People with Disabilities ( “AAPD”), Association of University Centers on Disability (“AUCD”), as well as our second time partner Atlas Corps.

We look forward to working in collaboration with our employer partners and helping to broaden the futures of our winter intern cohort!!! 

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Know someone who might be interested in applying?