{"id":17035,"date":"2017-04-24T09:42:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T13:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=17035"},"modified":"2017-05-08T15:18:07","modified_gmt":"2017-05-08T19:18:07","slug":"mosaic-picking-pieces-putting-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2017\/04\/mosaic-picking-pieces-putting-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Mosaic: Picking up the pieces, putting them together"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Year by Year<\/h2>\n

Along with their normal coursework, Mosaic students must take a weekly class that teaches them how to deal with their autism from academic, social and personal standpoints. Using textbooks written by Disability Resource Center Director Michelle Rigler, Assistant Director Emily Quinn and Mosaic Assistant Director Amy Rutherford, a different focus is explored each year.<\/p>\n

Michelle Rigler, director of the Disability Resource Center, explains each year\u2019s goals:<\/p>\n

Freshman:<\/strong> \u201cIt kind of explains what autism is because a lot of times students come to us and they aren\u2019t really sure how autism affects them. It\u2019s a lot about getting organized and being a good college student. A planning system. Managing time. Setting goals. How to communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophomore:<\/strong> \u201cAll too often, students go through elementary and middle and high school being bullied because they\u2019re different and feeling like an outsider. So we break down all those stories and have them rewrite their own story. They\u2019re the hero of their own story. We help them build up their core identity, the things they\u2019re going to stick to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior:<\/strong> \u201cTypically, when you work with kids with autism, you try to exempt them from working with a group because it\u2019s harder to manage. But we encourage them to work with a group \u2026 We talk about the value of developing your team with people who are the opposite of you so you\u2019re harmonizing roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior:<\/strong> \u201cThe expectation is that, when they get to the fourth year, they\u2019re going to be in a supervised internship or volunteer work or something like that. Each chapter is developed around a barrier that somebody has told us they experienced at work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The first time Cody Barnes met people with the Disability Resource Center, he panicked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI nearly ran out of the building,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no nearly. He ran from us,\u201d counters Michelle Rigler, director of the center who\u2019s sitting at the same table as Barnes.<\/p>\n

That was 2011, after he\u2019d recently moved from his Ohio home to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. At that point, he had not been officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, so he was freaked out when approached by people offering help for a disability he didn\u2019t even know he had.<\/p>\n

Four years later, he now credits the DRC and its Mosaic program for students with autism for \u201cessentially changing my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was walking through life asking myself: What was wrong with me? Why did I keep screwing everything up? Why did I keep causing problems even when I tried to stay out of the way of things? Why did I, me, myself, keep destroying potential relationships with people for seemingly no reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey basically gave me the understanding that there\u2019s a reason those things were happening and it\u2019s not just because I\u2019m a failure as a human being,\u201d says Barnes, an Engineering major who also has nystagmus, a condition in which his eyes twitch involuntarily.<\/p>\n

Created in 2008, Mosaic was developed by officials in the DRC to help students with autism learn to navigate the ends and outs of college life. The original idea for the program was suggested by autistic students already at UTC, says Michelle Rigler, director of the DRC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had students come to me and say, \u2018All these accommodations are great, but you\u2019re missing the boat with me. I just want to know why my roommate wants to kick me out or why my professor doesn\u2019t want me in class.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While the first few weeks of attending college can be like drinking from a firehose for any new student, those with autism can find it completely unbearable.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreshman year was bad,\u201d says Erin Maynard, who came to UTC in 2012 and is now a graduate student in Psychology Research. \u201cA lot of meltdowns, and silent ones at that point because I didn\u2019t trust anyone. Like it would just be withdrawing instead of going to ask for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diagnosed at 18, only one month before she graduated from high school, she completely understands why Barnes ran that first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have someone come up to you and say, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re autistic. You wanna come and talk?\u2019 We\u2019re like: \u2018No! No, I do not!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Focused efforts<\/h2>\n

CollegeChoice.net recently ranked UTC as No. 33 in a list of the country\u2019s top 50 college for students with disabilities \u2014 the only university in Tennessee to win the honor. In its write-up about the school, the website specifically mentioned Mosaic.<\/p>\n

The program currently has 41 students and they expect that to rise to a little more than 50 in the fall, Rigler says.<\/p>\n

Mosaic is highly structured for its students throughout the entire time they\u2019re enrolled at UTC. The core of the program breaks down into four components:<\/p>\n