Patrick Cadigan 0:08
Welcome. This is the post-secondary transition conversation. We focus on the ins and outs and everything in between of the transition process for families of students with disabilities. I am one of the hosts. My name is Patrick Cadigan. I am a public school transition coordinator. As always, I have a co-host, and who would that be?
Meghan Smallwood 0:25
I am Meghan Smallwood, and I am also a public school transition coordinator. All right, so we got to talk to Thomas Smith and hear all about his job, but now the lady behind Thomas, his mom Lavon Smith, is going to join us and tell us a little from her side. So thanks for joining us.
Lavonne Smith 0:40
You're welcome.
Meghan Smallwood 0:42
So I guess just to start, going back to when Thomas was young, what did you envision for his future? What did you think, like after school ended?
Lavonne Smith 0:54
To have a place to work where he could learn different things? The experience of Enclave when he tried all the different things led us in in the direction of people oriented position, and he was he's always been socially age appropriate, so it just made sense to follow that path, and he chose pretty much chose Weis Market over all the places that he worked because of of the interaction that he had with people. So he got the job as a work study position senior year. So that would be 2010, and by November they had called and asked if they could put him on the payroll.
Meghan Smallwood 1:56
Oh, that's awesome!
Lavonne Smith 1:57
And I said, "Let me think. Okay." And he's been working for them ever since. I will say that changing stores has made a huge difference.
Meghan Smallwood 2:07
Really?
Lavonne Smith 2:08
Yeah. He's had so many more opportunities in the Laurel store than he had in in Woodstock. He was strictly focused on like bag and groceries and stuff there, but he's done so many things, so many different things, and some things worked really well. Some things, you know, not so much.
Meghan Smallwood 2:34
Right.
Lavonne Smith 2:34
But the support that he gets is outstanding,
Meghan Smallwood 2:41
And that's a good point to bring up. If it's a store like Weiss, that's a chain. Sometimes maybe one store is not the best fit. You know, maybe there's another store.
Lavonne Smith 2:51
Manager dependent, really.
Meghan Smallwood 2:52
Exactly.
Lavonne Smith 2:53
Yeah.
Meghan Smallwood 2:54
Exactly. So I think it's important for families to realize that. Like, don't give up hope if one is not.
Lavonne Smith 3:00
Right. Just because one doesn't doesn't...
Meghan Smallwood 3:05
Fit well...
Lavonne Smith 3:06
Yeah, doesn't mean that there's not a store. There's there's so many of them around. Doesn't mean that a store somewhere else wouldn't be better.
Meghan Smallwood 3:16
So it sounds like employment was always a goal to have as part of his adult life.
Lavonne Smith 3:21
Yes.
Meghan Smallwood 3:21
Were there any, I know with Enclave, you have to sample a lot. Were there any any sites that you were like, or Thomas was like, "Nope, not this. This is not for me."
Lavonne Smith 3:31
Box folding at Alcon.
Meghan Smallwood 3:33
That is a, yes. I know exactly what you're talking about.
Lavonne Smith 3:37
Yeah, that was not a hit. Yeah.
Meghan Smallwood 3:41
And again, it's probably not just even the job; it's the fact that there's no social opportunities.
Lavonne Smith 3:47
Right
Meghan Smallwood 3:47
You know, and for one individual that works, but not Thomas.
Lavonne Smith 3:50
Yeah, it's not for someone with fine motor challenges, shall we say.
Meghan Smallwood 3:55
Right, exactly. But you know, we found that out through the process, and that...
Meghan Smallwood 4:00
Exactly.
Meghan Smallwood 4:00
...chock that up to experience.
Lavonne Smith 4:02
Because he also was at Penny's for a little bit.
Meghan Smallwood 4:06
Did he like the retail, like the clothing store aspect?
Lavonne Smith 4:09
Did you?
Thomas Smith 4:10
Yeah.
Lavonne Smith 4:10
Yeah, you did.
Meghan Smallwood 4:11
Okay.
Lavonne Smith 4:11
Um, there was your...
Thomas Smith 4:14
Gym place.
Lavonne Smith 4:15
Oh, he went. Yeah, cleaning gym equipment. He did at at one point in time.
Meghan Smallwood 4:21
So you can definitely get the cleaning part done at Weis, but do more too. So that's...
Lavonne Smith 4:25
Right.
Meghan Smallwood 4:25
...nice.
Patrick Cadigan 4:27
So as Thomas was getting older, did you have any concerns about adulthood and employment at any time?
Lavonne Smith 4:35
No, no, not for him.
Meghan Smallwood 4:38
And I know you said that we heard how he got his job, but they've been a huge support. What kind of supports do you see that they provide him? You know, like I know AJ's manager is wonderful. Like, are there certain...
Lavonne Smith 4:51
Yes.
Meghan Smallwood 4:52
...things that they do to help him along his way?
Lavonne Smith 4:56
Just being supportive of the things that he does. In addition to the work support, if he has a question, you know, if he needs help with something, he can always go to any of the managers or assistant managers. But being support of in support of what he does with his Special Olympics, adjusting his schedule To accommodate, not just well, for a while we had things in Special Olympics that were always on the weekends. So he doesn't work weekends, and now he doesn't work weekends also because of the flea market. But adjusting his schedule to what he needed, so he could do other things besides work at Weis Market. They're very family oriented.
Meghan Smallwood 5:45
Yeah, and it sounds like they really take an interest in the their employees and build those relationships, which is fantastic.
Lavonne Smith 5:52
And they feed him.
Meghan Smallwood 5:54
Most importantly!
Lavonne Smith 5:55
Most importantly, they feed them on Friday night.
Meghan Smallwood 5:59
I remember Thomas mentioning that because we asked, "Well, that's hard to work Friday night." He goes, "I get I get dinner." Oh, was there ever a time that you had to fight for supports for him...
Lavonne Smith 6:11
No.
Meghan Smallwood 6:11
...while he was employed?
Lavonne Smith 6:12
No.
Meghan Smallwood 6:14
How did the switch go from one store to the next? Was that advocated by you and Thomas?
Lavonne Smith 6:20
No, it happened because we moved.
Meghan Smallwood 6:23
Oh, okay.
Lavonne Smith 6:24
We lived in Marriottsville.
Meghan Smallwood 6:25
Yep.
Lavonne Smith 6:26
...and we moved to Jessup, and we shopped always in the Jessup store. And sometimes he would come in in his uniform, and...
Lavonne Smith 6:35
Miss Sharon.
Lavonne Smith 6:36
Miss Sharon would say, "Why don't you come work here? Why don't you come work here, and it didn't make sense when I started driving him. It didn't make sense to drive him to Woodstock when I lived three minutes up the road. So we talked to Sharon about it, and she arranged it, and it turned out to be for the best. It turned out to be yes, the absolute best.
Thomas Smith 7:03
Oh, my store is remodeled.
Lavonne Smith 7:05
He said now his store is remodeled.
Meghan Smallwood 7:07
Oh yes, even better, fancier. Did they change all the aisles around?
Thomas Smith 7:12
Yes.
Lavonne Smith 7:12
Yes.
Meghan Smallwood 7:14
Oh, I hate when that happens. It's like if...
Lavonne Smith 7:16
I have a complete list of where everything is.
Meghan Smallwood 7:19
Oh, good.
Lavonne Smith 7:20
And he already knows where everything is, so it all works.
Patrick Cadigan 7:25
So then, as far as employment is concerned, what were some of the biggest challenges along the way?
Lavonne Smith 7:32
Honestly, our biggest challenge with employment was RTA.
Meghan Smallwood 7:37
Transportation. We've heard that before, I think Patrick, haven't we?
Lavonne Smith 7:41
Oh my gosh.
Patrick Cadigan 7:43
Maybe only once or twice.
Lavonne Smith 7:45
They, we started out having him transported by RTA, and they were late picking him up. They've took there's other people that ride transit besides him, so he would get picked up, and then they would go all the way to Howard Community, and then come back and drop them off, which sort of didn't make sense to me, but whatever. But the biggest thing was the day that he was working 10 to 3 at the time, and he got off at 3, and it was quarter to 5, and I got a call from the store saying that Thomas was still outside. So I went and picked him up. So about 5:10, maybe or so, I got a call from the driver from RTA, and he said I'm looking for Thomas. I said they store called me at 4:45 and said you hadn't been there, so I went and picked him up. And he said, basically, stuff happens. Oh, he didn't put it quite like that, but I was in. I there was a lot of traffic. Stuff happens, and I said, "Okay, fine." So I reported it to RTA, and that was the last time we ever used them. And then we we did try ARC transportation, but when he's due to work at 10 and they don't come here until 10 of, yes, he gets to work on time, but it's too stressful worrying about not getting to work on time.
Meghan Smallwood 9:34
Yeah, and you like getting I like getting to work early and having that time to get myself ready. So...
Lavonne Smith 9:40
Well, you know, you can sit smooz with the people. You know.
Meghan Smallwood 9:44
Yeah, exactly.
Lavonne Smith 9:47
Transportation was the biggest issue. Other than that, I don't feel like I ever had any issues with with either either store.
Meghan Smallwood 9:58
How has having job changed Thomas?
Lavonne Smith 10:03
Oh, he's totally outgoing. He he. We taught him even in work study. We told him, "Don't sit and wait for something to do. If you finish something, go ask for something else." And that's pretty much what he lives by. What can I do to help you? He doesn't sit around and wait for somebody to say, "Oh, could you please go do this?" He finds things to do, and he's he's grown up through his work.
Meghan Smallwood 10:41
That's a great skill to have because that will definitely, you know, be marketable for employee employers. Like to know that you want to be there, you want to be helping, you want to be busy.
Lavonne Smith 10:54
You're interested in in the job. Oh,
Lavonne Smith 10:57
Oh, of course.
Meghan Smallwood 11:05
Have you seen any changes to his confidence with his with his job?
Lavonne Smith 11:11
It's just grown by leaps and bounds.
Meghan Smallwood 11:15
Yeah, and I'm sure with every new job assigned to him, I can see how proud he is talking about it. So it definitely seems to have affected his independence too, because it sounds like he's at the point now where they'll tell him what to do in the morning, and he goes and does it himself. So, and I'm sure that's developed over the years as well.
Lavonne Smith 11:39
I do remember him coming home one day from from work and saying, "I today I got a promotion." And I said, "Okay, well, what are you going to be doing?" He said, "Mr. Tom is going to let me clean the restrooms." So we are totally enthusiastic about everything that we do, if anything new, so...
Meghan Smallwood 12:08
I love it. I wish everyone was as enthusiastic as Thomas was about work. Make life a lot easier.
Lavonne Smith 12:16
And and it really the cognitive level doesn't matter.
Meghan Smallwood 12:22
Well, and what I love is the relationship that he has with AJ. Yeah, and it's just a relationship of equality, and just one adult with another adult. We need more of that because it just is motivating, and I think that attributes to the confidence he's built up too, because he knows that this person respects me and entrusts in me that I'm going to do the job, and he does.
Lavonne Smith 12:50
He's a peer there.
Meghan Smallwood 12:52
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Patrick Cadigan 12:55
And then, just out of curiosity, does AJ have a background of working with people with disabilities, or does he have a...
Lavonne Smith 13:02
Not, that I'm aware of.
Patrick Cadigan 13:04
...family mem; he's just really good at it.
Lavonne Smith 13:06
Yeah, yeah. He has a general affinity for it.
Meghan Smallwood 13:11
Yeah, he he just has it's um it's just so refreshing to see, and I just I want that duplicated all around our community, you know, just it.
Lavonne Smith 13:23
Was like a whole new world kind of thing.
Meghan Smallwood 13:26
And I think, well, that relationship, and I know Thomas was talking about some other coworkers. That definitely seems to have made some changes for him, just from what I've seen. Have you noticed any other changes, like socially, for Thomas? I mean, he's a social butterfly, so...
Lavonne Smith 13:44
Yeah, he's he's he's not afraid to approach somebody and say, like, for example, service people or police officers, "Thank you for your service. Greets everybody in the parking lot, you know. Have a good day. Have a good night. Whatever. And you brought the carts up for me. And yeah, he's got people. He's got people on Friday nights that bring the carts up, so he doesn't have to do it.
Meghan Smallwood 14:18
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Meghan Smallwood 14:48
I came to Marriotts Ridge the year after Thomas graduated, and I heard from Ms. Norris all about the mayor of Marriotts Ridge that just graduated, and I was so disappointed, I miss having my time with him.
Lavonne Smith 15:02
Yes, you you missed you missed a lot. He had a desk in Mister Saunderson's office with his name on it. He cleaned out a credenza to, to make it for him. He had an 18 th birthday celebration in the Commons with a long piece of paper attached to a billboard that everybody signed as...
Meghan Smallwood 15:24
Oh my gosh, I love it.
Lavonne Smith 15:25
...they passed in classes.
Lavonne Smith 15:27
His senior year, Mr. Saunderson on Twin Day, that he and Mr. Saunderson were twins. Mr. Saunderson dyed his hair orange. The start of his senior year was Mr. Saunderson was showing the new teachers around Howard County, and he was going to stop here so they could meet Thomas. And I was waiting for him to pull into the parking lot, and instead of Mr. Saunderson and a couple of people, a limo pulled in with Mr. Saunderson and the assistant principals, and they took Thomas with the new teachers to one of the assistant principals' houses for a welcome barbecue. That's how his senior year started.
Meghan Smallwood 16:21
Oh my god!
Lavonne Smith 16:22
Had a better school life than I ever had. Just let me say, because when I was in school, I was totally backward and shy, and he's like the total opposite.
Meghan Smallwood 16:34
Oh, I love it. Well, his legacy lives on. I mean, I heard all about him.
Lavonne Smith 16:39
Thomas Smith Spirit Award. I don't know if they still give it, but they did for at least three or four years subsequent to his graduation. Because he went he went right from senior year to community connections. I don't know if they do that anymore. He wasn't a super senior. It didn't make sense because everyone else was going off to college, so in essence, he did as well, because it's housed at community college, so...
Meghan Smallwood 17:09
Yeah, and that's why it should be very individualized based off of what the student is prepared for. I mean, his senior friends are graduating, so it's time..
Lavonne Smith 17:19
Right.
Meghan Smallwood 17:19
...for him to go on too.
Lavonne Smith 17:20
Exactly.
Meghan Smallwood 17:21
And from what you said with his work study experience, it sounds like he was ready for the next step to dive right into employment...
Lavonne Smith 17:27
Right, because...
Meghan Smallwood 17:27
...focus on that.
Lavonne Smith 17:28
...he already had a job to go to.
Meghan Smallwood 17:30
Exactly.
Lavonne Smith 17:31
it just made sense. The school was changing. Mr. Saunderson was leaving. It just worked out the way it was supposed to.
Meghan Smallwood 17:38
Yeah, absolutely. But I think yeah, that's a very important point because I think between 18 and 21, it's that time frame where let's see what else we can do besides sitting in you know a social studies class, a science class, all those things that academics are very important. But we're preparing for after 21, and what else is there? We know Thomas's employment has done great things for him. How about for the rest of your family? Has his employment affected your family too?
Lavonne Smith 18:07
Positively. What else could you want for your child but to live a happy life, be gainfully employed, have friends, and have outside activities like like Special Olympics, where he got to go to USA Games, and he's going to the Torturen Conference, and just his confidence in talking to people at the flea market and waiting on customers. Every everything worked out the way it was supposed to be.
Meghan Smallwood 18:46
What are you most proud of?
Lavonne Smith 18:49
A 380 pound deadlift at USA Games in Princeton.
Meghan Smallwood 18:54
I mean, that is something to be proud of.
Lavonne Smith 18:57
I about died.
Meghan Smallwood 19:00
Oh my gosh!
Lavonne Smith 19:02
And also being able to be super plunger, being able to do that independently, because I go home, I am not staying up 24 hours or going in the water either, and rappelling down a building.
Meghan Smallwood 19:17
Oh yes, I saw that. I saw that last fall. I was like...
Thomas Smith 19:22
Now they have a pool.
Lavonne Smith 19:24
Oh yes, now Special Olympics has a mobile plunge pool. So if you can't get out to the plunge and you want to participate, they will tow the pool to your location.
Meghan Smallwood 19:40
No excuses now.
Lavonne Smith 19:41
No excuses. No excuse. We're we're actually thinking about trying to work something out because we wanted to take our group of visually impaired teenagers to the plunge, and we never got permission for it. SoPatty and I are talking about trying to get the pool.
Meghan Smallwood 20:05
to come to them.
Lavonne Smith 20:06
Send one. Yes. We'll see. We'll see.
Meghan Smallwood 20:09
That would be that would be pretty fun to watch. Notice I say watch.
Lavonne Smith 20:15
Yes. Did; have I ever gone in? No. I hold a mean towel.
Patrick Cadigan 20:22
I was going to say no judgment here. I'd give him the wrong address.
Meghan Smallwood 20:29
Oh well, I'm glad Thomas can handle it because...
Lavonne Smith 20:32
Oh yeah.
Meghan Smallwood 20:33
That's...
Lavonne Smith 20:34
When, when he was at that's how he met his plunge partner is on the they rappelled down the metro building in Bethesda, and she was looking for a unified partner. And he says, "Oh, I could do that." And I was like, "Okay."
Meghan Smallwood 20:51
Well, I love that he's willing to give everything a try.
Patrick Cadigan 20:54
Yeah, just jump right in from what it's sounds like.
Lavonne Smith 20:56
Its...
Meghan Smallwood 20:56
Right.
Lavonne Smith 20:57
...that confidence thing again.
Meghan Smallwood 20:58
Yeah.
Lavonne Smith 20:59
You know, not oh, should I do this? Like I can do this.
Meghan Smallwood 21:04
Yeah, he's all in. I'm gonna give it a try.
Lavonne Smith 21:07
Yeah.
Patrick Cadigan 21:07
So then, around the employment sphere, what work do you think still needs to be done?
Meghan Smallwood 21:15
Because we've got so many parents who are like at that transition age now with their young adult, and you know they're looking ahead and wondering what what do I do? What are the options like? What what is what would help? I guess to to make them feel better, you know, what can be done to help bridge that gap of how do I reach employment and how do I get them situated as well as like Thomas's.
Lavonne Smith 21:41
Well, first of all, there's no job that's unimportant. The I would imagine that there are some that oh, a grocery store. Every job is important to somebody, and everybody fits in somewhere. So I think what what you've done with the business fair is a start, so they can they can see the finished product. Here's someone who went through what you're going through and has a totally successful life. Don't be afraid to encourage them to go out and do things, regardless of of what it is, do sports, do whatever. Let them go and do.
Meghan Smallwood 22:33
Yeah, you don't know unless you try.
Lavonne Smith 22:35
Right.
Meghan Smallwood 22:36
And if it doesn't work out, well, at least you can say you've tried.
Lavonne Smith 22:40
And also get involved in Enclave, so you can...
Meghan Smallwood 22:43
Yeah.
Lavonne Smith 22:43
...see, or you know what your your child likes or doesn't like.
Meghan Smallwood 22:50
Yeah, and I think that's important to add too, because the those work experiences that they have out in the community while they're in school, you've got the support. Like you said, every job is important to somebody, and it may not seem like oh they should be cleaning a church, but how do you know they don't love it, and how do you know they're not going to make a connection and find something else there that they do, or you find some kind of soft skill that they're really good at there, so yeah, I think it's important not to discredit any opportunity.
Lavonne Smith 23:24
Go and visit people in a nursing home...
Meghan Smallwood 23:27
Yeah.
Lavonne Smith 23:27
...you could end up being a volunteer there.
Meghan Smallwood 23:30
It's all about those relationships. You're right. Yep, and just like with Thomas, I mean, his personality just shines through. So I think people are just gravitated towards him, and they can see. Oh, he's got he's got the the persona to to try this and do that, and let's give it a go, so...
Patrick Cadigan 23:50
Ms. Lavonne, thank you. I, I...
Lavonne Smith 23:52
You're welcome.
Meghan Smallwood 23:53
Thank you. It was so great chatting with you and Thomas today.
Lavonne Smith 23:56
Yeah, it was fun. Thank you.
Meghan Smallwood 23:59
Appreciate your time.
Patrick Cadigan 24:09
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