Extended Version: Resilience, Faith and ZMIZ1- Mary Avera's Remarkable Journey

In this extended interview, our host Mary Baudoin provides listeners with some background information about the ULL LIFE Program and a little background about our guest Mary Frances Avera.

In this inspiring interview, Mary Frances Avera opens up about her rare ZMIZ1 diagnosis, the profound role faith plays in her life, her deep love for animals, and her journey to graduating from the ULL LIFE (Learning Is for Everyone) Program. 

At end of the episode, our host wraps up the highlights of the conversation and announces the featured guests for next week's episode. 

Transcript

Introduction

Hi everyone, and welcome back to This Ability Podcast. I’m your host, Mary Baudoin, and today’s episode is a really special one. I’m so honored to introduce you to a remarkable young woman named Mary Frances Avera and the incredible family that surrounds her with love, strength, and advocacy.

Before we dive into our conversation, I want to take a few minutes to give you some background on Mary Frances’s diagnosis—because chances are, you’ve never heard of it. And that’s exactly why this story is so important to share.

Mary Frances was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition called ZMIZ1 Syndrome. It's a mouthful—sometimes it’s also referred to as ZMIZ1 -related Neurodevelopmental Disorder or by the even longer name: Neurodevelopmental disorder with dysmorphic faces and distal skeletal anomalies. But no matter what you call it, this is a rare condition—so rare that there are only a handful of known cases worldwide.

ZMIZ1 Syndrome is caused by a mutation in the ZMIZ1 gene, which plays a crucial role in early brain development and gene regulation. When that gene doesn’t function the way it’s supposed to, it can lead to a wide range of developmental and physical challenges.

For many children like Mary Frances, those challenges include delays in speech and motor skills, intellectual disabilities, and distinct facial and skeletal features—especially affecting the hands and feet. Growth and feeding issues are also common, and some children require feeding tubes or other interventions to help them thrive. Other associated concerns may include muscle tone differences, vision and hearing issues, heart defects, and sometimes microcephaly, which means a smaller head size due to slower brain growth.

One of the most interesting things researchers are learning is that ZMIZ1  Syndrome may be linked to Autism Spectrum Disorder -ASD. The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative has even classified ZMIZ1  as a strong candidate gene for what’s called “syn-drom-ic autism." That means children with ZMIZ1 Syndrome may show traits that overlap with ASD, especially in how the brain develops and communicates.

But here’s what I want everyone listening to remember: A diagnosis may help explain certain medical or developmental differences—but it never defines a person.

Mary Frances is so much more than a diagnosis. She is vibrant, expressive, curious, and full of life. Her journey is one of resilience, of breaking through expectations, and of being embraced by a family that is determined to give her every opportunity to grow and shine.

And like so many families navigating rare conditions, the Ave ra family had to become instant researchers, advocates, and experts. Because when there’s so little information out there, you often end up being the one teaching doctors instead of the other way around.

There’s still a lot to learn about ZMIZ1 Syndrome—researchers are studying it using animal models and genetic pathways to better understand how the brain develops, and what treatments might help. But in the meantime, stories like Mary Frances’s are changing the game by bringing awareness, building community, and reminding us all that every child deserves to be seen, supported, and celebrated.

So with that in mind, let’s jump into today’s episode. You’re about to hear a conversation that is honest, hopeful, and deeply moving. This is the story of Mary Frances Avera—and I know it will stay with you long after the episode ends.

Mary Baudoin 

Thank you everyone for joining us for this episode of This Ability podcast. I'm your host Mary Baudoin, and joining us today is Mary Frances Avera. Mary, glad that you could be here. So tell our audience a little bit about yourself.

Mary Frances Avera 

My name is Mary Frances Avera. I'm actually from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, right now in Baton Rouge. Just got a job today in Baton Rouge Petz Plaza. It really is-

Mary Baudoin 

What are you going to be doing there?

Mary Frances Avera 

Cleaning, taking dogs out, feeding them, doing daycare.

Mary Baudoin 

Okay.

Mary Frances Avera 

So my hobbies are taking long walks with my dog or new puppy, playing with her, seeing friends, taking golf cart rides around my neighborhood or around my house, and hanging out with family.

Mary Baudoin 

Now, you're going to be working at a place that you're going to be surrounded by dogs. I'm presuming you're a dog lover.

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes ma'am.

Mary Baudoin 

Have you always had animals your whole life?

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes ma'am.

Mary Baudoin

Yeah.

Mary Frances Avera

Yes ma'am. Actually, throughout my years I had cats, dogs, rat, geckos, chickens-

Mary Baudoin

Yeah, okay.

Mary Frances Avera

Have three chickens. Every Easter we get ducks for Easter, it's our tradition. Turtle, fish. I mean it was baby turtles, different things.

Mary Baudoin 

That sounds great. So let's go ahead and talk about, the first thing I have on our list is health. What condition are you diagnosed with, and when did you find out about it?

Mary Frances Avera 

So we found out I had ZMIZ1 called. It's relate to neuron development disorder. It was a rare thing. I didn't really recognize it. I did not have Down syndrome. We thought we had it, but we never did. It was pretty... Did not know, because all throughout my life was hearing impaired, vision loss, heart defect. I wear glasses every day, I have learning defect, learning problem. Not learning problem, but learning difficult, hard to learn and…

Mary Baudoin 

Okay. If someone is listening to this episode and they just found out that they have the same diagnosis as you, what would you want them to know?

Mary Frances Avera 

To me, to tell y'all is, it is very rare disorder. I didn't know how long it took to find this out. I want them to know about my disability. It's very rare. I mean, nobody talks about it. The most that we talk about in disability is autism, Down syndrome, some other disability that we heard the most, but we don't really talk about other disabilities.

Mary Baudoin 

Let's talk about your faith. How important is faith to you in your life?

Mary Frances Avera 

So yes, faith is very important in my life. Yes, listen to Christian music every day. Every day, every other day. I go to church every week, meeting up every Sunday. I listen to some prayer readings, I go through readings. Also, I listen to podcasts. And then recently, about a year ago, I went to a conference in St. Louis, Missouri called Seek.

Mary Baudoin 

Okay.

Mary Frances Avera 

And I actually love it. One of my favorite priests, who's actually from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, went there.

Mary Baudoin 

Nice.

Mary Frances Avera 

And he's a great priest. His name is Father John Johnson. He does, he does so much hearing. He's one of the best speakers.

Mary Baudoin 

You've been raised a Catholic?

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes ma'am.

Mary Baudoin 

Yeah. And did you attend a Catholic school, if I'm not mistaken?

Mary Frances Avera 

No.

Mary Baudoin 

No?

Mary Frances Avera 

So actually yes, when I was little, called St. Aloysius in Baton Rouge.

Mary Baudoin 

Okay.

Mary Frances Avera 

Through second grade there, and then I went through public school. But actually when I was in college, I attended,  they call it Catholic in Lafayette. And I love it.

Mary Baudoin

Nice.

Mary Frances Avera

I go a lot of events, I go there. I go their connect retreat, encounter retreat, different retreats. It's fun.

Mary Baudoin 

That's great. So when you went to Seek, you found out more information about Christianity and did you get to meet some new people?

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes ma'am.

Mary Baudoin

Make some new friendships?

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes.

Mary Baudoin

Oh, that's great.

Mary Frances Avera 

I mean, I've met so many people there. Actually one of the group in the Seek conference or the Seek... They had one little section was for only Greek. So it's for like swarthy...

Mary Baudoin

Fraternities?

Mary Frances Avera

Fraternity.

Mary Baudoin

Okay.

Mary Frances Avera

And then I met so many people from [inaudible 00:04:46] and their culture and everything is so nice. So I can tell they're learning so much. I was pretty scared. I'm not scared to meet people, but I'm also scared to go

Mary Baudoin

Right. Yeah, I think on some level many people are a little intimidated to approach somebody new, but nine times out of 10 you find that you can just find something in common with that person, get to know them a little better, and never know, make a new friendship.

Mary Frances Avera

Yes ma'am. About two years ago, yes, two years ago, I actually did my first confirmation, and it was actually a great thing I did. It was fun, it was exciting. And one of my favorite saints of all is Mother Teresa.

Mary Baudoin

Okay.

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes. And a lot of people tell me that Mother Teresa but also one favorite part I hear is, Mother Teresa came to Baton Rouge in the church called Saint Agnes in Baton Rouge. And she sat there and there's a little cart, or not a little cart, but a little something, and it says like, "Oh, I sit here-"

Mary Baudoin 

Oh, like a plaque.

Mary Frances Avera 

Yeah, a plaque. And every time I walk there, it makes me feel joyful.

Mary Baudoin

That's great. Yeah, because she was there in that spot.

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes.

Mary Baudoin 

Why is she your favorite saint?

Mary Frances Avera

Because she makes me laugh. I can see small things. I don't remember what the quote said, but I remember if I see it and it's so beautiful.

Mary Baudoin 

That's great to have a favorite saint. Let's talk about your education. What teachers have you taken classes with that have made a positive influence on your life?

Mary Frances Avera 

So I have two, but I'm actually going to do two. One of them is Dr. and Dr. Donald Watson, one of the best teachers I ever had in the college. They taught me so many things.

Mary Baudoin

Now that's at the university here in Lafayette?

Mary Frances Avera

Yes ma'am.

Mary Baudoin

Okay. What did they, they teach you? What do you remember?

Mary Frances Avera

So one of them taught me different things. Social skills, different things. I don't remember off my head, but one of them, Dr. she taught one of our classes. It was freshman year or sophomore year. She taught me a computer class. Not a computer class, but something about a job and she just taught us so many things about writing or emails and stuff.

Mary Baudoin 

Yeah. Yeah, professionalism.

Mary Frances Avera

Yeah, professionalism.

Mary Baudoin

In writing. That's great. That's great. That certainly comes in handy.

Mary Frances Avera

Yes.

Mary Baudoin

And also when you were at UL, you were through the LIFE program, which stands for Learning Is For Everyone.

Mary Frances Avera

Yes ma'am.

Mary Baudoin 

Last year, I recorded a podcast interview with Jade Viator and Caroline Billeaudeau from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette LIFE (Learning is for Everyone) Program. Here are a few excerpts from that interview so you can hear what the program has to offer:

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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-

That would be an incredible place to intern.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

You give them that exposure to the arts.

Exactly.

Okay, great.

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.

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?

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.

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

No.

Any completion of a high school program is sufficient.

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

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.

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

Yeah.

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.

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.

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-

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.

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.

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.

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

I love that place.

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.

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 day.

And now, back to our interview with Mary Frances Avera.

So tell me what that program was like for you.

Mary Frances Avera 

When I was there, I went there in 2019. I applied there, I came on campus. It was actually a new experience. It was a new culture, it was a lot of new things. I was actually pretty scared.

Mary Baudoin 

Were you? Okay. Okay.

Mary Frances Avera

I did not know what it looked like. And when I first came in there, I was pretty happy about. One of my favorite thing about Lafayette, or call it the UL, my program in Lafayette University, is their culture. Their culture is Cajun French.

Mary Baudoin

Yes.

Mary Frances Avera

And I love Cajun French.

Mary Baudoin

The culture here, there's some great food.

Mary Frances Avera

Yes.

Mary Baudoin

What's your favorite thing to eat in Lafayette?

Mary Frances Avera Gumbo.

Mary Baudoin 

Yeah.

Mary Frances Avera

Crawfish shrimp. Gumbo. Gumbo is my favorite, yes.

Mary Baudoin

Especially when it's nice and cold outside.

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes.

Mary Baudoin

Nothing like some good gumbo and rice in it. Yk?

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes.

Mary Baudoin

I know that as a student, the LIFE program, it changes people for the better. You get to meet a lot of new people and you get to learn a lot of great things. Would you recommend the LIFE program itself to other people?

Mary Frances Avera 

Yes. Yes. I would recommend other students to attend this program because it has so many things to do and learn about the new culture, the history of the university because there's so many things about the program teach you so many things, dance or here's about this. You could go to a game, you could go to any kind of events. I was actually in a lot of events this year.

Mary Baudoin 

That's great to get out there and do things, ma'am. Maybe that you wouldn't have done otherwise. Yes. Yeah. Whenever you were in the Life program, I'm sure they also had, I know they have internships or places that you could work. Yes ma'am. Do you find that the skills that you learned at UL helped you to get the job that you've

Mary Frances Avera 

Gotten today? Yes ma'am. Actually it does because pretty much learning from the college helps you to get into the world, learning to be independent, how to learn to do stuff independently, especially when you learn for job. You do your own, you look for your own, you go look online to go find a job, do your own interview and be patient. And yes, it will take time to do all this stuff, but we need to keep positive, keep going and you will get there.

Mary Baudoin 

That's awesome. Mary, are there any fun facts about yourself that you would like our audience to know? And she says this and she's giggling, so I can't wait to hear her answer.

Mary Frances Avera 

Ashley had two fun facts. One is I actually have, when I was little before or after I was born, I actually has six fingers. It was pretty cool. On which

Mary Baudoin 

Hand? Left hand. Left hand.

Mary Frances Avera

Okay. So when About a couple of years later I had surgery and now I have five hands or five fingers. So that's one of them. And then another one I actually have, they're chickens, eggs from the

Mary Baudoin

So do you sell the eggs? No ma'am. No. You just use them for cooking, ma'am and all that? Yes ma'am. What are the chickens names?

Mary Frances Avera 

I don’t Remember. You just call them chicken 

Mary Frances Avera

One two, chicken do chicken. And also this past year, I have another fun fact. This past year or this past couple months, I actually got a new puppy. Her name is Pearl

Mary Baudoin

Pearl

Mary Frances Avera

And she's a golden doodle.

Mary Baudoin

Oh, golden Doodles are so

Mary Frances Avera

Beautiful. I know. I hear so many. I hear so things and she's still learning. And I love just learning to pie, train. Don't jump on people just don't bark when just nothing out there. She's learning so

Mary Baudoin 

Much. Good. That's great. And you enjoy spending time with her? Yes. Yeah. And get train her. It takes a lot of patience to train an animal.

Mary Frances Avera

Yes ma'am. That's very true. Because it's like I get mad at her. She's still learning.

Mary Baudoin

And dogs are always happy to see their own, right? Yes. She'll never get mad at you. You might get mad at her, but she'll never be mad at you. She's going to love you unconditionally. Yeah. Isn't that a good thing? Yes. Well, Mary Frances, it has been a pleasure to interview you. Are there any topics that we did not talk about that you would like to talk about?

Mary Frances Avera 

One thing is during college, have fun. Life is too short just to do craziness, but just life too short. And then be happy about

Mary Baudoin 

It. It is. Life is very short and that's a great give way to close out the show. It

Mary Frances Avera

Is my motto.

Mary Baudoin

Love it. All right everybody. Well thank you for listening to this edition of This Ability podcast. If you enjoy listening to our podcast, be sure to like our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcast for updates and new episode postings. Goodbye everyone, and thank you for listening.

Wrap Up Session

Before we close out today’s episode, I want to take a few minutes to highlight something close to home here in Acadiana—a unique and empowering college experience that’s changing lives: the UL LIFE Program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

UL LIFE stands for Learning Is For Everyone, and it truly lives up to that promise. This inclusive program is designed for students with intellectual disabilities and offers them a chance to learn, grow, and thrive on a college campus just like any other Ragin’ Cajun.

The program is divided into two pathways: a Basic 2-year program and an Advanced 4-year program. In the Basic Program, students focus on building core skills they’ll need to live independently—things like functional academics, communication, health and wellness, and career development. They also participate in social and leisure activities, helping them get the full college experience in a supportive environment.

For students who really find their stride and meet the criteria, an invitation may be extended to continue into the Advanced Program. This next level digs even deeper into career readiness, independent living, and community engagement, giving students more responsibility and less support as they work toward a life of greater independence.

One of the most exciting parts of UL LIFE is that students don’t just take LIFE-specific classes—they also audit university courses in areas tied to their interests or career goals. Maybe that’s something like hospitality, art, child development, or computer technology. And to complement that learning, students participate in on-campus internships, building real-world job skills with the help of trained mentors.

But UL LIFE isn’t just about academics or employment—it’s about belonging. Students attend campus and community events, volunteer, cheer at football games, and even live on campus with access to the UL LIFE Skills Lab. This lab includes a full kitchen, laundry area, and practice workstations where students can learn essential independent living skills in a hands-on way.

At the end of their journey—whether they complete the 2-year or 4-year program—students receive a Certificate of Accomplishment from the College of Education and Human Development. That certificate reflects all they’ve achieved across academics, life skills, employment training, and full community integration.

The UL LIFE Program is a beautiful reminder that college isn’t just about degrees—it’s about opportunities. And UL is leading the way in creating those opportunities for every kind of learner.

And speaking of young people making a big impact, I want to take a moment to spotlight our inspiring guests from Episode 4 that you’ll meet next week—two local teens from Acadiana who were nominated and were selected as the winners of our Teen Spirit Award episode. They two bright young ladies who are not just dreaming of a better world, but actively helping to create one.

First, we interviewed Aubrey David, the passionate founder of Aubrey’s Amazing Grace. Aubrey has raised thousands of dollars through bake sales and community fundraisers—supporting families facing everything from cancer diagnoses to housing instability. Inspired by her former teacher and her own family’s experiences, she has turned her compassion into real-world change. Her dedication and leadership at such a young age are a true example of what it means to lead with heart.

Then we heard from Chloe Sogne, who brings her advocacy to life in so many meaningful ways. As a volunteer, festival queen, and sister to siblings with special needs, Chloe uses her platform to speak out about inclusion. She’s been a powerful voice at autism meetings, helped promote sensory-friendly spaces at local festivals, and is always looking for ways to make the world a little more welcoming for everyone. She’s volunteered at the Very Special Pageant, where she was excited to help every participant feel celebrated and seen.

Aubrey and Chloe were both honored with our Teen Spirit Award because they exemplify what it means to make a difference in your own backyard. They are not only leaders of tomorrow—they are leaders of today.

Thanks so much for tuning in to This Ability Podcast. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay connected, share today’s episode from our YouTube Channel with a friend, and help us spread awareness and encouragement one story at a time.

Until next time, take care—and remember: every ability has a story.