Project SEARCH Pilot Program Interns Graduate

Episode # 58
Uploaded: June 29, 2011
Running Time: 0:01:38

CROWN: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.

CROWN: It's graduation day for a dozen interns at the Clinical Center who are going on to a different type of residency.

CROWN: These interns are part of the Clinical Center's Project SEARCH -- a one year school-to-work program that teaches young adults with disabilities professional skills and workplace training.  Hospitality Services Chief Denise Ford says the pilot program is a huge success.

FORD: To us it is not just getting them a job; it is starting their career.

CROWN: Eight of these new graduates are going on to fill permanent positions at the Clinical Center. One of them is Ricky Day who says he would one day like to develop video games and adaptive equipment for people with disabilities.

DAY: With stuff that I could do here, I could do anything for many other people and just see what I can do. Maybe I could go that far in my life.

CROWN: Ford said she hopes to continue the program next year and expand it to other Institutes throughout the NIH campus.

FORD: They have opened people's minds to look beyond the wheelchair -- beyond the physical disability -- to see the bright young individual that is really in the core the intern and to see what they can contribute to the NIH mission.

CROWN: From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Ellen Crown, at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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