“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched,
they must be felt with the heart” ~ Helen Keller

Welcome to the Rehabiliation Studies blog site. Rehabiliation Studies represents both the Rehabiliation Counselor Education program and the Rehabiliation and Addiction Counselor Education program at St.Cloud State. Our programs prepare students to to help people with disabilities achieve their personal, social, career and independence goals. Program faculty include myself, Dr. Amy Hebert Knopf, and Dr. Bradley Kuhlman. We also have Dr. Barbara Vesely, a department faculty, who greatly contributes to our program. In addition, community faculty, such as Dr. Emily Lund teach in our program.

Program Highlights for 2017-2018

The 2017-2018 academic year was active and exciting. We admitted a great cohort of students in the Fall of 2017

  • George H.W. Buch Fellowship
    • Dr. Xuan Zheng and I are very honored to be the first recipients of the George H. W. Bush Fellowship awarded by the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and engagement. The Harkin Fellows Project is a multi-year, multi-phase project with a goal of advancing education and increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The overall project focuses on two countries, the United States and China.
  • MRA (Minnesota Rehabiliation Conference)
    • There were more than 30 students in attendance at the Fall 2017 MRA conference. The ABILITY event was given the MRA President’s Award for Outstanding efforts in the field of disability!

  • NCRE (National Council of Rehabilition Educators)
    • Several students attended and presented at the Spring 2018 conference.
    • Carrie Wilbert, 2nd year RAC student Placed 2nd in the Bill Downey Scientific Poster Award!

  • CSAVR (Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabiliation)
    • Joseph Jones, Executivve Director of the Harkin Institute) and I attended CSAVR and hosted a focus group session on the Impact of WIOA.
  • The Ruderman Foundation Conference
    • Dr. Johnson, Dr. Zheng, Reen McCaffrey and myself attended the Ruderman Inclusion conference where we were able to meet Nyle DiMarco!

  • The ABILITY Event
    • On February 27, 2018 we hosted another successful Embracing the Difference: The ABILITY Event at SCSU. This year we featured two AbilityX Talks given by our very own Steve Anderson and Wally Waranka.
    • We had two great keynote speakers, Anastasia Somoza and Aaron Cross.
    • The Confucius Institue sponsored a Thankful Tree from Thankful.org

Save the Date for the

March 12, 2019 ABILITY Event.

  • The Zero Project
    • In February, Dr. Johnson and I were invited to attend the Zero Project conference in Austria. The Zero Project is held each year in Austria and focuses on specific areas of the United Nations Convention on the Rights People with Disabilities (UN CRPD).
  • Mobility International
    • In March Dr. Johnson, Mr. Jones and I visited Mobility International USA (MIUSA) in Eugene Oregon. MIUSA brings together women with disabilities from around the globe and empowers them with leadership skills. We are very honored to partner with MIUSA and hope to havev them join us for the 2019 ABILITY Event.
  • May 2018 Graduation

Congratulations to the Rehabiliation Counseling Program graduates: Becky Kristiansen, Colleen Longhenry, Tristen Moulzolf, Jessica Norem, and Katie Ramos (pictured left to right, not pictured Bonnie Bittner and Mike O’Neal).

Congratulations to the Rehabiliation Counseling Program graduates: Sandy Spiczka, Ashley Bauch, Carrie Wilbert, Cassie Erickson, Cody Ashburn, Randa Perfetti and Taylor Breidenbach (pictured left to right).

Program Updates:

Congratulations to our Grant Director, Rachel Grace, for being accepted to a doctoral program. Although we are sad to see Rachel leave our wonderful family at SCSU, we are so very proud of her and wish her the best of luck.

I will be on sabbatical for the Fall 2018 semester. Dr. Kuhlman and the new Grant Director will be managing the programs while I’m collecting research in China. Be sure to check out my posts

Whew…I guess we were really busy this last year. Please subscribe to my blog and you will received all of our post. I hope that information posted here will not only be beneficial, but will also touch your heart.

Smiles,

Dr.Knopf