Quality Career Option - Guaranteed Employment

A few years ago Geneva Ellingson came to Ruston thanks to a job transfer from Starbucks. One day—while serving up lattes, mistos, and mochas—she got to talking with a customer about how she also came to Ruston in the hopes of a stable job. One thing led to another, and Geneva learned she was talking with Ruby Ryles, an instructor at La Tech’s Institute on Blindness.Geneva said she was fascinated by the idea of teaching blind people. For one, blind people who are out there living their lives are just interesting. Second, the job market for educators is pretty stable.

And, like most of you, she cared about one other thing......She wanted to impact individual students’ lives.

Like other students, blind kids need to learn to read; so, substitute braille dots for squiggly lines, and you’re teaching a blind kid to read. When learning to walk sighted children stumble all over themselves and bump into things; blind kids, too, learn to walk on their own safely by using a long white cane to find a clear path.

The most important thing to anyone pursuing a degree is a job.

Geneva’s story is not uncommon. Every month I receive at least two opportunities from employers who are desperate to hire qualified professionals to work with their students or adults. We at the [Institute on Blindness](www.pdrib.com) housed right here at LaTech, strive to provide our students with the most cutting-edge, thorough, and professional training programs to ensure that our students succeed after graduation. When you enroll or even just take a class with the Institute on Blindness, you will be learning from people who in many ways pioneered the field of teaching blind students. Many of us literally “wrote the book” and developed the certification exams that you’ll take. Life-changing, high-quality instruction is the norm in our classes. Your class next semester could lead you to a rewarding career where you aren’t stuck behind a desk all day.

We train three types of professionals who work either with students in school settings or adults who have recently lost their sight:

1. Teachers of blind students teach the skills of braille, assistive technology and problem solving.

2. Orientation and mobility instructors equip their students to travel safely, confidently and independently using a long white cane in familiar and unfamiliar environments.

3. Rehabilitation teachers are cross-trained individuals who are skilled in all aspects of blindness techniques, and they often work in folks’ homes, teaching them to manage their households independently.

 We believe that some of the best teachers for blind kids are blind adults. We have made it a point from the ground up that our programs are inclusive and built to be appropriate for blind or sighted teachers. If you are sighted, know that we would love to have you as well, and we will teach you what you need to know to supply your future students with the skills they need to succeed. If your current living situation makes it difficult for you to be on campus, you’ll be happy to know that our Master of Arts in Teaching program is almost entirely online. We have a number of classes—like our Braille 1 class, Braille 2 class and Assistive Technology class—conducted weekly via a video conferencing platform so that instructors can give students real-time feedback. We also schedule times for hands-on, long-weekend training sessions in Ruston for assistive technology and advanced braille training. Speaking of needing to work in less familiar environments, consider one of our graduates who graduated just a year ago. He’s already had more than a half-dozen job offers.There is a nationwide shortage of special education teachers trained specifically to work with blind children and adults.If you’re looking to apply your education degree with a master’s outside the field, consider our Master of Arts in Orientation and Mobility program. Instructors don’t only teach travel skills, they also build confidence and help people accept their blindness. This new program touches on some of the strategies and techniques that allow us to guide students toward this way of thinking. Regardless of the program that you choose, you will have the opportunity to go through what we call “immersion training.” You’ll spend six weeks as a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind (www.louisianacenter.org) where you will take classes in braille, cane travel, home management, and assistive technology…and then you’ll tie all those skills together in the woodshop class.

Scholarships are available for incoming students in the orientation and mobility as well as rehab teaching tracks. We hope that this will help encourage you to consider joining us. We need blind and sighted mobility instructors who really believe in blind people and possess the skills to take their students on a journey from dependency to independence.I am eager to meet you. With a degree from us, I can virtually guarantee you that there will be a job opening in your area of expertise in the field of blindness. Give me a call or shoot me an e-mail, and together, let’s plan your master’s degree here at Louisiana Tech!

Dr. Edward Bell

Director PDRIB

ebell@latech.edu

3182572259