Rehabilitation hosts Career Day

 
The Department of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies hosted its 8^th annual Career Day Program Wednesday in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Smith-Brown Memorial Union.
“The career day allows the students to network with companies in the field. It allows the student to get a feel for what the Rehabilitation field is all about,” said Phyllis Gaile, an organizer for the program. ”It is one thing to read information in a textbook but it is different when they are allowed to have hands on experience.”
Rehabilitation and disability studies became a department in 2003 and had its first career day as an independent department in spring of 2004.
A total of 25 agencies consisting of interns and professionals were ready to engage students about different agencies dealing with all types of disabilities from autism and drugs, to Alzheimer’s disease.
Tasha Johnson, a sophomore rehabilitation counseling major from Shreveport, La., said “I know I wanted to help people with disabilities but I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to start and the career fair helped point me in the right direction.”
In his opening speech Madan Kundu, Chair and Professor of Department of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, said according to the World Report on Disability just released by the World Health Organization, the world population has reached to seven billion of which one billion are people with disabilities (PWD).
“In the U.S., we have about 55 million PWD, in other words, one out of every six individuals has some form of disability,” said Kundu.
Some of the programs such as UpLifted, Baton Rouge Treament Center, Independent Living, and Volunteers of America, and the Department of Juvenile Services reinforced the mission of rehabilitation, of empowering people with disabilities to make informed choices, build viable careers and live more independently in the community.
Tiffany Anthony, a intern with UpLifted said, “When people come to us, their ready to go through the employment process. We put them in a classroom setting which is job placement and development that consist of resume writing and learning proper work etiquette.”
“Our main goal is to let people know that just because they have a disability doesn’t mean they can’t be employed,” said Anthony.
Places like The Baton Rouge Treatment Center, appealed to students wanting to assist people dealing with the disease of addiction.
Reginal Parker, a counselor from the center said, “We treat people with opiate addictions. Patients come to us on different opiants (drugs) and we treat them ​with Methadone.”
According to www.drugs.com, methadone is an opioid pain reliever, which reduces withdrawal symptoms in people addicted to opiates without causing the “high” associated with the drug addiction.
 Kristin Lewis, a junior rehabilitation counseling major from Baton Rouge, said “In these harsh economic times it’s hard finding a job as a student, I’m glad career fairs like these can lighten the load.”
 Carliss Washington, associate professor and coordinator of the undergraduate program said, “The department is constantly planning but next year’s event will include more demonstration based participants because we will be collaborating with Assistive Technology service providers. It will be more interactive than previous ones.”​