Visiting Westchester University students and professor with students of the School For Exceptional Learners – poolside at the Pineapple Fields Resort where they were invited to spend a fun morning during the week long visit.
(Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, The Bahamas) The School for Exceptional Learners, located in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, led by Principal teacher, William Holland, played host to visiting students, studying Special Education at Westchester University in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., from Friday, March 15 until Sunday, March 24, 2013.
Corinne Murphy, professor of Special Education at Westchester University and colleague Professor Claire Verden, along with five university students, Elizabeth Simpson, Jimmy Wittmer, Alex Bell, Mazi Kuba, and Jenny Batta spent time with the children of the school for Exceptional Learners.
Professor Murphy commented on the stay, saying, “It’s a great experience for our students, because they get to experience a different culture, they get to experience different kids, and it’s a great intern experience, because they get to work with them from the start of the school day to the end of the school day, where normally the students would only get two to three hours of experience with school children at any given time. So it’s a really great experience for them.”
While working with the Eleuthera children, the university students completed assessments and worked on lessons with the kids.
According to Murphy, this was the fourth trip for the University, with the very first having been in 2010. She shared that it all began when Dr. Claire Verden came to Eleuthera on vacation staying on the hill in Governor’s Harbour just across the street from the School for Exceptional Learners.
Her area of expertise being in Behaviour Management she tried to make a connection to the school and found that they were open to having visitors come down. So Dr. Verden applied for grants from the University to have different groups of students travel to visit with the Exceptional Learners each year. Essentially, the university students are on scholarship while they are in Eleuthera, learning and getting the experience of working with different children.
The vision, said Murphy, is to try to grow the program each year. So now they have five students travelling in, and hope to eventually send student teachers for longer periods of time from about six to eight weeks.
