Speaker: Carlos Taylor, Program Manager, Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health
Please state your full name, title, organization, and the award name.
Carlos Taylor: My name is Carlos Taylor and I am the program manager of the Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health where we facilitate paid internship experiences for college students with physical disabilities in the state of Indiana and our surrounding states. We are honored to have been selected to receive the 2024 Chevron Innovation Award.
Talk briefly about your program and what sparked you to develop it.
Carlos Taylor: This program began as a partnership between Ball State University and Eskenazi Health. It was known at Ball State that college students with disabilities were graduating at the same rates as their non-disabled peers. However, we knew at the time anecdotally and statistically through national surveys that college students with, excuse me, college graduates with disabilities were not employed at the same rates as non-disabled peers. College graduates with disabilities are often either unemployed or underemployed, not earning the same pay as their peers without disabilities. Greg Fehribach, the person for whom our program is named, is a prominent attorney in the Indianapolis area who also has a disability. Greg is a graduate from Ball State University and he observed in the important spaces in which he works that there just weren't many other individuals with disabilities represented. And these are important spaces where, you know, decisions are being made. And so he approached Larry Markle, who was the Director of Disability Services at Ball State at the time many years ago to ask what sorts of things can be done to help. The situation that we're finding our college graduates with disabilities and, and so with Greg's connections and, and the partnership with Eskenazi Health, one intern was selected to participate in 2013. The program went well that Eskenazi Health asked for additional interns in following years. the program grew to the point where Larry and I were asked to leave our respective positions at Ball State University to come and develop this program. Expand it, recruit students from several other colleges and universities around the state of Indiana, not just Ball State, and bring on additional employer partners as well. So we've had more than 40 colleges and universities represented throughout the state of Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio. We've had several employers, more than 40 employers represented who have hosted interns through the program. We've also had close to 200 interns who have participated in nearly 400 internship experiences, which simply means that several interns have come back to the Fehribach Center for more than one internship experience.
What were you trying to achieve? Did you achieve what you expected?
Carlos Taylor: This program has really achieved what we were hoping for. So one thing that is really important for college graduates to advance in their professional careers is work experience. It's really difficult as many of, you know, for college graduates to land full time positions with no work history and no work experience. So this internship is providing college students with physical disabilities, some form of hearing, vision, mobility or orthopedic-related disability with those important work experiences to build the skills necessary to be competitive when they enter the workforce.
Were there any surprises—any results you weren’t expecting?
Carlos Taylor: I think one of the biggest surprises that we found is the great deal of reception that we have received from employers when we explain the program and our mission to help college students with physical disabilities gain the experiences necessary to, to advance in their, their professional careers. We've gotten a great deal of reception from employers wanting to host interns. It, it's been fantastic that we do a lot of outreach but sometimes people find us and reach out to us expressing interest to host an intern with a physical disability through our program.
How did you develop this program? What processes did you use?
Carlos Taylor: The processes that were primarily used to start this program largely are from partnerships that were formed. So as this program began as a partnership between Ball State University and Eskenazi Health to host one intern internally at Eskenazi Health. Several partnerships have been formed in various departments to now host interns. In addition to Eskenazi Health, several colleges and universities that we recruit students from are very important, important partners of ours being that we are recruiting college students with physical disabilities. We partner with disability service offices from numerous campuses in the State of Indiana and our surrounding states. Also our employer partners external to Eskenazi Health are very important to the mission and the work that we are doing. We also have great partnerships with facilities that we utilize for housing, transportation, accommodations that might be needed for interns. So there's a lot of partnerships that are, that are involved that have been crucial in developing this program.
From your perspective, what was the single most important outcome of this program?
Carlos Taylor: The outcomes of this program are, are numerous. I think that one of the, the most significant outcomes of this program are the, is the confidence that we see interns grow with as they come in. You know, some of them have never had any work experience before. They're not sure exactly how they will fit in, in a work environment. But as they participate in the internship program, they gain the, the knowledge, the confidence that they are somebody who can contribute to a corporate environment. And we've had several interns who have former interns who have gone on to obtain full time employment. So they think that's one of the biggest outcomes of this program.
If someone wants to replicate your program, what do they need to know upfront (the first steps to take, potential pitfalls to watch for)?
Carlos Taylor: For anyone who wants to replicate a program like the Gregory S. Fehribach Center, I think there's some important things to keep in mind. I think that no matter the population that you are working with and we at the Fehribach Center are working with college students with physical disabilities specifically, but no matter if you're working with college students with physical disabilities or other types of disabilities, it's important to have a, a firm understanding concerning the issues that that population faces, the accommodations that might be needed in an employment setting, transportation or accessible housing if, if that's needed. So those are the things that are very important. One of the, one of the biggest things I think I can suggest is to start small, start with just one, maybe two individuals to see how things are working and to be able to adjust to any unforeseen barriers or roadblocks that might present themselves during the, the experience.
