Life is hard enough without having to deal with issues most of us take for granted. That’s why, since its founding in 2010, the College’s REACH Program has helped more than 100 students with intellectual or cognitive disabilities make it on their own, people like Randon Strange ’16 of Metter, Ga., who enrolled at the urging of a friend.
“It’s one of the top programs in the country, and there was nothing like it where I grew up,” says Strange, who took full advantage of all REACH had to offer. Other students helped him improve homework and test results, while REACH staff taught him how to manage things that made him uncomfortable, like eye contact.
The program also arranged internships for him. “Randon started out with an internship in the MUSC mailroom, then he tried a computer repair internship, but he kept going back to mail services,” says Edie Cusack ’90, executive director of the REACH Program.
Upon his graduation, Strange’s passion for mail services led him to apply to be a mail services postal courier at the College. He got the job and, while it was a tough decision to stay in Charleston, he knew he had the tools he needed to succeed.