About once a month, half a dozen or so students from the University of Michigan-Dearborn visit Howe bearing crafts, smiles, and patience as they visit special ed classrooms.
Calling themselves the Creative Needs Project, the group includes a lot of students who are graduates of Dearborn Public Schools. Now they are pursuing degrees ranging from pre-med to computer sciences.
“It started with the idea of trying to overcome the stigma of disabilities,” said leader Sara Moughni. Each craft project provides a learning experience for each of the students, whether that is as simple as working on fine motor skills to naming colors.
Part of the group’s description says, “In efforts to provide an environment that promotes social and engaging opportunities for children with intellectual and cognitive disabilities, we aim to equip children with the skills needed to include them in societal activities.”
Moughni said, “We are all college students, and all looking to give back to the community.”
Moughni graduated from Dearborn High in 2022. She also attended STEM Middle School and the Dearborn Center for Math, Science and Technology – two programs for high achieving students that sit just down the hallway from Howe at the district’s Dearborn Heights Campus.
Just before Thanksgiving, the undergrads were back at Howe, helping special needs students put stickers on to make turkey masks. Howe is a unique school with about 290 students. About half of the students are in a preschool through fifth grade Montessori-style elementary and half in special education center with classrooms for severely disabled students ranging from preschool through age 25.
Most of the students making the masks were in wheelchairs and had limited communication skills. So the Creative Needs volunteers worked with them at tables, on trays, or even on the floor to assemble the turkey masks.
“It’s a great way to have a study break,” Moughni said, before helping a student don her new mask for a photo by the teacher.
