UL LIFE Program Interview

In this episode, we sit down with Jade Viator, Director, and Caroline Billeaudeau, Community and Career Coordinator for the UL LIFE Program.  The UL LIFE (Learning Is For Everyone) Program is a highly individualized certificate program for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

They discuss the UL LIFE Program which focuses on academic growth, career development, community involvement, and independent living. UL LIFE Program offers a Basic 2-year or Advanced 4-year program to students . LIFE Students who successfully complete the UL LIFE Basic or Advanced Program will receive a Certificate of Accomplishment through the University of Louisiana College of Education and Human Development. This certificate represents that students have completed the UL LIFE requirements in university courses, LIFE courses, employment training, and community integration.

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of This Ability podcast. I'm your host, Mary Baudoin, and joining us today are Caroline Billeaudeau and Jade Viator with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette LIFE Program. I'm very excited to hear more about this program. Thank you both for joining the show today. Caroline, we'll start with you. You can tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 2 (00:23):

I'm Caroline Billeaudeau. I'm the Community and Career Coordinator for the UL LIFE Program. I help students find internships while they're in our program, as well as helping them get involved on campus and in Lafayette as well. I started with the program around 2018 as a mentor in my undergraduate studies and then I went on to be a graduate assistant and then was hired on in 2022.

Speaker 1 (00:46):

And Jade, if you'd like to tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 3 (00:49):

Hi, I am the Director of the UL LIFE Program. I was the Academic Coordinator formally and I started back in 2017 as a graduate assistant and kind of just moved my way up as well. I kind of just oversee all aspects of the program at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:07):

Great. Thank you both for being here. I'd like for you to give our audience and myself a little bit of education on the history of the UL LIFE program.

Speaker 3 (01:16):

So the program began in 2014. We had four students and one full-time staff member at the time, and shortly after they brought on another staff member as an instructor. Over time, over the next couple years, it kind of fluctuated with one full-time staff member and graduate assistant to then when I was hired on. And then in 2022 is when we brought on a third full-time staff member, which was Caroline. In 2019, we added residential and that became a really big aspect of the program. And then we're here now with 32 students.

Speaker 1 (01:52):

That's amazing how it developed from four to 32. I know you guys have four components to the UL LIFE program. Can you expand on the first one? I know that's the academic program. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Speaker 3 (02:05):

There are two aspects of the academic portion of the program. The students, they audit UL LIFE classes, which are classes within our program that are functional academics. Those are things like self-advocacy, social skills, career readiness. And the other aspect that involves academics is that the students audit UL courses. They are fully inclusive. They are with other UL students. They are paying to audit these classes. They are taking classes within their focus area, which ultimately lead to their career goals.

Speaker 1 (02:38):

Yeah, great. So these courses will help them with their career goals.

Speaker 3 (02:42):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:43):

So you guys sit down with each student and develop plan for them, basically?

Speaker 3 (02:47):

Yes. Very individualized, really across the whole program, but their academics are pretty individualized as far as which classes they're going to take within UL.

Speaker 1 (02:56):

Let's talk about the career development. Can you expand on that a little bit?

Speaker 2 (02:59):

We teach career classes, like Jade said. So those are in every year a student is taking at least one career class within our program and that's really to help hone in on those skills like emailing, workplace etiquette, how to communicate with coworkers versus bosses versus customers. We role play and we practice these things and make sure that they're ready to be in the workforce. Using that aspect of the program, we put them in internships. These are all student chosen. The internships are really based on what they want to do after graduation. And like traditional college students, they don't always know what they want to do.

Speaker 1 (03:37):

I was one of those.

Speaker 2 (03:39):

They can start in one aspect and then move to different things to try to test out other ideas that they have. So one, we're not choosing an internship for a student and two, we're not making them stay in that internship. They want to try something else out. Students do, they start on campus, we have so many on-campus partnerships like the Career Closet, the academic departments, the library, fitness centers, anywhere on campus, students really have been welcomed and embedded as student workers.

Speaker 1 (04:06):

What are some of their responsibilities as the student workers? What do they do?

Speaker 2 (04:10):

So for example, let's go with the post office. Our interns do exactly what a student worker would do. So they will help put the packages into each mailbox or mail, sort that and put it in the mailboxes for students who have PO boxes. And then anybody that has a package, they'll come, they'll bring the little package slip to the LIFE intern and the LIFE intern will go and grab the package for them, come bring it back, and then they'll sort it in the book saying that they came and picked it up. At the fitness center, they'll check students in, they'll help give, if they need a basketball or a volleyball or a locker, they'll help check that equipment out and check it back in. They'll clean the equipment in the workout room, they'll fold towels. Anything that a student worker's doing, our students are doing too.

Speaker 1 (04:49):

So I have a few more questions about the internships. Are they just on campus or they're also off campus too?

Speaker 2 (04:56):

They're off campus too. Especially if we have students that their goals are more driven and more focused that we can't find something like that on campus. And so it's kind of like that next step. Usually within their junior or senior year, they can move into that off-campus placement that's more focused in. So we've had students at places like Caroline's Cookies to work with customers and baking, an-

Speaker 1 (05:17):

That would be an incredible place to intern.

Speaker 2 (05:19):

Yes, they were fantastic. I have students at Clayfish Bisque, Our Lady of Lourdes, Carson Vet Clinic. Lafayette really has opened up their door to our students being employed through our program, and it's been fantastic to see, especially coming from Lafayette, how open everybody is.

Speaker 1 (05:35):

That's great. And you guys take it a step further too because you also have an independent living component for the program. So tell us more about that.

Speaker 3 (05:44):

Our independent living component has grown tremendously over the past few years. We have independent living classes where we're teaching students how to live independently and what that entails. We also have our students living in the dorms, and so they're able to take what they learn in those classes and applying them to their lives on a regular basis. And we have about half of our students, I think this year we'll have 21 or 22 students living in the dorms, over half. And then we also have a life skills lab in our building, which has been amazing for teaching our students independent living skills such as cooking sessions.

(06:26):

We have a fully equipped washer and dryer, dishwasher, sink, all the things you would have in your kitchen. So they're learning all the skills needed to live with all those tools and whatnot. We also have computers there so they can access those computers and use that for different business type skills, copying, printing out things, different tasks like that they would also be doing in the workplace. So that skills lab has been really great. Classes, they can take what they learn in the classes, apply them to the skills lab, and then applying them at home if they live at home or in the dorms if they live there. Yeah, it's been amazing.

Speaker 1 (07:01):

Just from an outsider looking in, I do work at the university, but I work in accounting at the Moody College of Business, not in the UL LIFE program. When someone is enrolled in the program, do they have the benefits of being the same as a regularly registered student at UL? Can they join sororities or fraternities and things like that?

Speaker 3 (07:24):

Yes, so I'll answer part of that and I'll let Caroline answer the second part. So yes, our students are registered as full-time students and they get every single perk that a traditional full-time student receives. They're paying full tuition and fees, so they are getting access to the rec center, they are getting access to the union, all of that good stuff. And then as far as the extracurriculars, I'll let Caroline kind of touch on that.

Speaker 2 (07:46):

We've had students involved in sorority life specifically. They go through recruitment like every other traditional college student. They get to be involved in that process and get to choose each chapter that they feel the most confident in. We've had seven students, female students going through sorority recruitment. We've had a student in every chapter on campus, which has been great to see all of those women being so inclusive and wanting to have a student with different abilities in their chapter.

Speaker 1 (08:13):

How do you find that the student interaction is with the general population, with students that are enrolled in the UL LIFE program?

Speaker 2 (08:21):

Fantastic. Being a mentor, being a student, honestly, I didn't know about the program when I was in undergrad until my junior year, so around 2018 when I joined as a mentor, I applied to be a mentor. Just the acceptance, the openness, the desire for students to want to work with our students is incredible. I think definitely have a very unique culture at UL and I think that our students, our traditional college students and our LIFE students really add to that and they have fully embraced our students.

Speaker 3 (08:55):

That goes for the departments on campus as well. For instance, with residential, our former director usually always would give this story, but we were not planning to do residential for another year or two, but residential life came to us ready to try it out. Let's see how it goes, benefit our students, and it did and it worked out perfect that first go round. So they came to us ready to go. And then same goes for the academic departments on campus. For instance, we had a student take a lot of criminal justice classes this past, well, his whole time with the program, and they came to us wanting to recognize him upon his graduation, had done so well in their classes and just really great that they came to us wanting to do more.

Speaker 1 (09:36):

I think that's great. It sounds like the departments as well as the students have really embraced the program and students within. That's awesome. Lastly, one of the fourth components is the community involvement, so let's expand a little bit on that.

Speaker 2 (09:51):

Yeah, so that's our two communities. We always say our campus community and our Lafayette community. Our goal is for our students to be as included and involved as possible in both. And honestly, at UL it has come so naturally, students really have been so open. We have students involved in so many different organizations. Just a couple of examples. Panhellenic sororities, Sigma Alpha Iota Music Sorority, and we have a student involved in that. Sports clubs, intramurals, Arabic club, the list goes on been so embraced and our students really can join whatever they want, join. We help support them in their time and schedule management a little bit. We'll have one-on-one meetings with them to make sure they have their week planned out. "Hey, don't forget you have your meeting this week. You have this coming up too. Do you have a ride? Do you know who you're going to meet up with whenever you get there?" After that, it's really all on their own. They put it in their calendars, they know where to go, they do it. And they're some of the most involved members of organizations sometimes.

Speaker 1 (10:51):

When they attend these events off campus, are they required to volunteer or just attend to have a good time, to check it out, to take pictures or share on Facebook?

Speaker 2 (11:02):

A lot of times they are just attending. For example, we'll have students go to the Art Walk downtown or Festival Acadien. They're just attending just as any other college student would.

Speaker 1 (11:12):

You give them that exposure to the arts.

Speaker 2 (11:14):

Exactly.

Speaker 1 (11:14):

Okay, great.

Speaker 2 (11:15):

Exactly, and they love it. They love festival. We always say this past year Festival International was after our students went home, but right before finals, but I know that they would just love that because they love Festival Acadien and they love anything that's a part of Lafayette. They love to do the farmer's markets. Another good one, weekly thing, we recently partnered with our transportation department at UL, that way they can provide transportation for our students to get to the farmer's market on Saturday, and they love getting to see the Cajun band play and all the local merchants selling their stuff. They get to try the good food. We want to make sure that they feel connected with Lafayette, especially if they want to stay or if they live here already. College isn't forever, for the two or four years that you're here, and so we want to make sure that they still feel connected with the Lafayette community past graduation.

Speaker 1 (12:03):

What are some of the requirements? If someone's listening and they have a son or daughter that's in high school, they're looking at what their options could be for someone, if they have a child with a disability, what are their options after high school? How would they go about applying if they're interested?

Speaker 3 (12:20):

The application process with our program is different than traditional students applying to UL. A potential student would apply directly with our program, and that is typically found on our website, which we have a fairly low acceptance rate, and that's just because we are limited in numbers and the size of our program at the moment. So about a 25 to 40% acceptance rate program is very individualized. That does ensure we are providing the resources that we can within the size program, our staff, the university and whatnot. But we do offer preview days every fall. We don't have those specific dates to plug right now, but they will be on our website very soon. It's in the fall where students can come, learn about the program, families can learn about the program. We are embedded in the traditional preview day atmosphere the university puts on.

Speaker 1 (13:11):

Do they have to have a high school diploma or a GED?

Speaker 3 (13:14):

No.

Speaker 1 (13:15):

No, okay.

Speaker 3 (13:16):

Any completion of a high school program is sufficient.

Speaker 1 (13:19):

What about their ability? Do you guys take that into consideration in the application process?

Speaker 3 (13:25):

We do look for ability to maintain, being able to be in a class for a certain amount of time, their motivation to be in a program like ours, that type of thing.

Speaker 1 (13:36):

Okay. You have students that have maybe cerebral palsy or Down syndrome, a broad array of what their disabilities are?

Speaker 2 (13:45):

Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:45):

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:46):

One of our criteria is an intellectual disability. We don't want to ever want to hold somebody back from being able to earn a degree if they can. Since our students audit, they are receiving a certificate of completion after they finish our program, so we don't want to hold anybody back from getting that degree if they can. Other than that, I mean, any diagnosis.

Speaker 1 (14:02):

That's awesome. And so you've got the two year program and the four year program. So you try to guide the students as you're meeting with them, to which program is better suited for them.

Speaker 3 (14:12):

Them. So it's basically a student is accepted as a two year student with the potential to be invited to the four year, and that is just an extension of the program, longer classes, more specific career driven type of-

Speaker 1 (14:27):

Now you guys also have a mentor program. Tell us about that. And you said, Caroline, that you were a mentor. Tell us what that's like.

Speaker 2 (14:35):

Yes, so our mentor, gosh, we wouldn't be here without our mentors. We said they are the ones that have opened so many doors. Our mentors are the ones that got our students into sorority life and things like Soul Camp, but they really have opened the doors. They're the ones embedded in the community, and they're the ones working with our students the most and so they know what they're capable of and they can help get them where they want to be. Our mentors are all traditional college students, either in undergraduate or graduate programs. We have majority undergraduate mentors, but we do welcome graduate students if they have the time.

(15:10):

They can be paid or volunteer, both we support. They have the choice to do whatever. They all apply to be a mentor. So it's an application process. We want to make sure that whoever's applying has the desire to work with people with intellectual disabilities, is willing to learn if they haven't had exposure before. They're trained by us every single semester. We want to make sure we ever evolving as a program. We go to conferences. We don't want to stay stagnant. We want to make sure that we're evolving and our mentors need to be doing that with us.

Speaker 1 (15:40):

That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (15:41):

That's why we train every year, every semester. And then they're our supports for our student. There are so many full-time staff and so many graduate assistants, so we can't support 32 students in every single class. So our mentors are the ones that do that. So they'll go with the student to all of their university classes, they'll help them take notes if they need. They'll help them keep track of assignments. They're an extra set of eyes and ears in that classroom to help the student comprehend if they need any help. Their internships will also have mentors go with them, so they will help support really in any way that student needs in their internship. They kind of act as a job coach to help give any supports if the student needs a support there, help them finish a task if they need help with that, or to just sit back and be there if they need. We say internships is the one place that we can start to fade that support because students, especially ones that have been in internships for longer than a year, they get the hang of it.

(16:35):

The mentor can take a little bit step back, maybe they'll start going only once a week with the student, get them set up, and then the next day they can go without a mentor. But that's the only aspect that a mentor will fade that support. And they'll do all social events with our students. It's good to have just a contact person if a student needs anything. Say at a football game, it's really busy, there's a lot going on, have a mentor there just in case they need anything. They really start to become friends with the students, and so the students want them there. They want the mentors to be there. They'll go get lunch with a mentor while they're on campus or dinner with them after a basketball game. They really become a friend more than just a support. So they lifeline of our program for sure.

Speaker 1 (17:18):

Yeah, I think it sounds like the are relationships that are built through this program, it's not just on the student side that's participating, it's pretty much everyone involved. It sounds like they can all learn from each other. Many programs on the campus, it all revolves around money. Tell us how you guys are funded. Do you have state, federal grants? How does that work?

Speaker 3 (17:40):

We are a line item in the university budget. The students do pay full tuition, so they're paying for their classes. However, we were lucky enough to get some funding through the state. We are a, first of all, there's a few components to this. So we are a comprehensive transition post-secondary program, which that means we're recognized under the US Department of Ed. That means our students can apply for Pell grants, so if they meet their requirements, they can receive federal Pell grants, which is very beneficial to them. But Louisiana has eight programs in the state. We are always excited for more, and we recently with State was able to add a couple because of a grant that we got, Louisiana passed Act 192 in 2023, and the state was awarded a million dollars to enhancement and creation of programs. So we had a couple additions there. So that was really, really exciting.

Speaker 1 (18:32):

Well, usually Louisiana's on the bottom of a relist, especially when it comes to education. And you mentioned the Pell grant. What about scholarships? Are there any scholarships available if someone's interested?

Speaker 3 (18:43):

Yes, there are some. They have Ruby's Rainbow Down Syndrome Association Scholarship. Last summer our students have received the Louisiana Council for Exceptional Children's Scholarship.

Speaker 1 (18:53):

This might be a good time, if there's anyone listening that owns a business that would be interested in making a contribution, a scholarship would probably be a great way to get some of those students involved and help with the cost if they can, because college is expensive, wonderful as it is, so that would be great. And get some more scholarship donors in there.

Speaker 3 (19:14):

Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (19:14):

Our foundation would love that.

Speaker 1 (19:16):

Yeah. Tell me a little bit about the students who have participated in the program, if you've gauged or kept up with any that have graduated from the program, any type of success stories that you can mention.

Speaker 2 (19:29):

So we had a student in 2020, he graduated from our program. He's from the Baton Rouge area, so he moved to Lafayette. This was before we had our housing component, so he was living independently before we had the dorms. His goal was to work in food management, hospitality management. So he took classes within the hospitality management department. He had an internship with the UL food management company that UL uses. He had an internship with them. He was really successful in that internship. And then he was able to post-graduation, secure a job with La Pizzeria in Lafayette. So he continued to live in Lafayette.

Speaker 1 (20:04):

I love that place.

Speaker 2 (20:07):

And so that trajectory of what his goals were and he was able to reach them because of the success he had in our program. It was really, really great. And then we have a student who is still in the program and her goal is to work with animals in some capacity. She really wanted to be a veterinary technician, so she's taking classes within the biology department. There's animal science and nutrition classes, and so she has an internship at Carson Veterinary Care just to continue that learning that goal for her. She works with the animals directly as well as the doctors. She kind of helps the animals in between their appointments and getting them ready, keeping them entertained if they're there for a while. They have a splash pad outside, so she'll bring them outside to play.

Speaker 1 (20:50):

Seems like a dream job, that one and the pizzeria place. Yeah, it sounds like opportunities of a lifetime there. And one of my good friends and someone who's been with the Down Syndrome Association for many years is Molly Guidry, and she was telling me that people with Down syndrome, well really any disability, they're so eager to go to work, because it's something they look forward to. And most of the time you'll find that they're very loyal to the employers that they work for. They want to go to work, they want to put on that uniform, they want to interact with people. It's just a great way for them to get out in the community, not just stay at home or be isolated. So I definitely applaud you guys for what you do. It sounds like you really touch a lot of lives and have some great stars coming out of this program.

Speaker 2 (21:40):

Yeah, we do.

Speaker 3 (21:40):

Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (21:41):

Do y'all have any last points or anything that you'd like to mention before we close out the show today?

Speaker 3 (21:47):

All of our information and things about the program can all be found on our website, which is basically go to the UL website, louisian.edu, search UL LIFE. First thing that comes up is our page. That, our social media. We are on Facebook and Instagram, UL LIFE. Anyone that's interested learning more about the program, if the website doesn't have the answers, our email is on there to contact us. But also the preview days will be, those dates will be listed fairly soon, hopefully for the fall. And we always encourage people who are interested to attend preview days.

Speaker 1 (22:23):

One question, I should have asked this earlier, but it just kind of dawned on me. If you guys were to get more funding into the program, you would be able to expand the number of students that you would have for the program or how would that work?

Speaker 3 (22:34):

Tentatively, yes. For instance, with the hire of a third person, we were able to grow a couple, a few numbers. We were able to get to that 30, above 30.

Speaker 1 (22:44):

There's like one person per X number of students?

Speaker 3 (22:46):

In a way-

Speaker 2 (22:47):

In a way, yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:49):

Because ultimately, let's say if we were to hire someone, we'd be hiring someone, an additional person, maybe for another aspect of the program that is currently being covered by multiple people. That person would be tending to that area of the program. But for all of our students. And then for instance, Caroline is tending to or working with all internship career aspects, but for all students, regardless how many we have. So it just depends.

Speaker 1 (23:16):

I understand.

Speaker 3 (23:16):

On that note, we will be opening up a position fairly soon. With me moving into the director role, we will be opening up an academic coordinator position pretty soon.

Speaker 1 (23:26):

I'm hoping that maybe we can get some more scholarship donors sent your way too to help fund the program, because it sounds like it's such a worthwhile program, something that the students of Acadiana and really statewide can participate in. It sounds like it's just wonderful for them in all aspects. Okay, well, I think that's going to wrap up this episode of This Ability podcast. If you're enjoying listening to our podcast, be sure to like us on Facebook and also subscribe to our YouTube channel at This Ability podcast. Goodbye everyone, and thank you for listening.