By: Kyle Giesegh

How do college students interact with college- aged students with mental disabilities?

 Join an organization on-campus that promotes friendship between college students and college-aged individuals with mental disabilities  Use an Interdisciplinary approach to determine the interaction between college students and college-aged students with mental disabilities  Determine if this organization is helping the individuals with mental disabilities prepare for their future

 Nationally Best Buddies has six different programs to help individuals with disabilities  Best Buddies Citizens  Best Buddies College  Best Buddies Jobs  Best Buddies High School  Best Buddies Middle School  e-Buddies (online pen-pals)

Best Buddies at UCF is truly a remarkable organization that leaves you with an incredible experience. Being paired up with Domingo was an eye-opening experience because he’s very outgoing, he just can’t control it sometimes. I was so moved to see how carefree he was at the age of twenty that I made some personal changes in my life to be more like him. I watched my own interactions change through the interpersonal communication connection I shared with this individual. Before I was shy around mentally disable people; I don’t know why, but I’m so glad I chose to be a part of this organization because it made me a better person and I know Domingo feels the same way. I’m still going to call him every now and then just to see how his day was.

Elements of a Discipline Area 1 Discipline – Commerce Area 2 Discipline – Health Science Minor Discipline – Psychology Phenomena Understanding the work mentally handicapped people have in society and how they help the economy by working. Understanding the physical aspect of what causes a mental handicap in a person. Thinking, feeling and explaining how certain factors affect human behavior and how we interact with mentally handicapped people. Assumptions Assuming that mentally handicapped persons are just as willing and as eager to work as the rest of society and seeing this group as a whole. Assuming that in the future we can use genetics to alter certain g enes that will affect human mentality. Assuming that mentally handicapped persons can interact with society the same as those who are not mentally handicapped. Epistemology Focusing on how the many aspects of Commerce are found in different organizations and schools that help the mentally handicapped. Focusing on how to train teachers to educate the mentally handicapped so this group is able to get a similar education as the rest of society. Focusing on how to teach the mentally handicapped and understanding their disabilities. Theory A theory in Commerce would be to set up a job networking organization that allows mentally handicapped persons to work. A theory in Health Science would be to understand why certain gense cause mental retardation and how to reverse this affect. A theory in Psychology would be to help society understand how mentally handicapped persons are affected by promoting awareness by way of the media and seminars. MethodA method of tracking the results of this theory would be to track an organization that helps mentally handicapped and see how many members receive a job after a year. A method of tracking the results of this theory would be to offer these types of Science classes starting in High School and using Government funding to pay for scholarships for this type of research. A method of tracking the results of this theory would be to have certain organizations created Marketing Awareness campaigns and view statistics of how many people are reading these ads.

 Psychology – Helps explain human interaction between those with mental handicaps and those without.  Health Science – Helps explain how mental handicaps are formed in the brain.  Behavioral Sciences – Helps explain how those with mental handicaps act and how those without mental handicaps treat those with mental handicaps.  Commerce – Helps explain the economy and the current workforce. Ultimately, Best Buddies has a program to help these individuals get a job.

Commerce:  Business – the act of creating transactions and interacting with people all over the world  Hospitality – an industry that involves business and providing a service to people Health Science:  Health – understanding the human body and how to survive  Healthcare – an industry that involves business and providing a medical service to people Psychology:  Knowledge – understanding human interaction through internal and external influences  Development – understanding how humans develop physically and mentally Behavioral Sciences:  Science – understanding how these disabilities affect the human mind and bow  Behavior – understanding the importance of how we act to and around others

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES AND PSYCHOLOGY These two disciplines conflict with behavioral sciences because of the human interaction involved in both of these fields. Emotion changes our feelings based on situations we’re put in as humans in the natural world. Watching and interacting with people in the real world is the point of this project, but there are advantages to using both behavioral sciences and psychology in this research project. These two disciplines conflict with commerce and health sciences because these two disciplines deal with experiments and tests in controlled environments. Controlled experiments have different test groups that are given different substances to test a desired effect. Exposing individuals to these tests would not be effective in a controlled environment. COMMERCE AND HEALTH SCIENCES

In every multidiscipline research project a common ground must be identified, a common ground that ties each individual discipline together. The common ground in this project was Education. In Psychology, we are taught how to interact interpersonally as well as in a group. Psychology is important because it helps us cognitively reason and evaluate situations. In Health Sciences, we are taught about the brain as well as how these disabilities are formed. Health Sciences also teaches us evolution theory which explains social networking and individual growth. In Behavioral Sciences, we are taught how the body sends signals to the mind and how our mind processes those thoughts. In many mental disabilities thoughts are not processed or are processed in an abnormal way. In Commerce, we understand how business works and the importance of a job. Education ties these three disciplines together because it is important to understand mental disabilities and the effects they have on people. Education is also key because we can train individuals the necessary steps it takes to forming these friendships. Forming these friendships at times can be overwhelming and frustrating, but that’s where education comes in to play.

 Education  Implementation  Reflection

The point of this project is to understand these interactions and how to make them better. The educational plan consists of marketing and advertising to students on campus as well as keynote speakers in the student union. These speakers will be educational leaders who will teach students about different mental handicaps, what to expect out of this friendship and about the organization Best Buddies itself. I feel that this type of education will help to break the ice before the pairs are actually introduced. In my opinion, this educational interdisciplinary plan would not be effective before the collegiate level because of a certain level of maturity; though Best Buddies nationally has Middle School and High School programs so this is only an opinion. On the contrary, this plan would be highly effective in the community and to corporations. Creating jobs in this economy especially is important for our country to function at it’s highest rate.

This step will be the action part of the interdisciplinary plan to promote better interaction between college students and college-aged individuals who suffer from mental disabilities. Keynote speakers, members of the Best Buddies organization as well as educational leaders will be leading seminars in the student union. Promoting these events each semester will consist of marketing and advertising through flyers, social networks and word of mouth around campus.

Reflection is an internal process that is needed in determining whether this interdisciplinary project utilized all it’s resources. Reflecting will help highligh what was effective in promoting awareness about mental disabilities. This step will take multiple individuals of the group to decide if this will help increase these friendships not only on campus, but in the community as well. Service projects with both parties of this organization will show the community that these friendships are meaningful. Assumptions in this interdisciplinary project proved to me that I was not thinking using logic and reason; I was thinking emotionally. Only during the reflection phase of this project was I able to see that. Logging twenty hours with this organization (plus more one-one-one time with my buddy, Domingo) changed me. Reflecting back on my life, I’ve never had a friend who had a significant mental disability; I never opened up and allowed these friendships to occur. Reflection has taught me share this experience with as many people as I can because the individual growth for both the college student and the college-aged student with mental disabilities is incredible.

 Combining these disciplines helped to create the common ground of this project. Creating the common ground of these disciplines helped shape the interdisciplinary solution to the research question.  Solving a problem using an interdisciplinary approach was necessary because it allowed me to gain knowledge from multiple fields, yet using the common ground to be able to construct a plan of action.

The point of this research project was for me to find out how college students interact with college-aged individuals who have mental disabilities. At the beginning of the semester, there were 23 buddy pairs. As the semester went on, a few pairs grew distant each because of the college student and not because of the mentally disabled individual. I talked to a few college students who went inactive from the organization and their responses were not abnormal; the college students just could not find the time to make a difference in their buddy’s life. I realize the life of a college student can be time- consuming, but I feel that if Education was put in place about this organization ahead of time the members who went inactive would have known what to expect. At the very least, they would’ve learned that this organization was not for them to join. Education is the common ground that holds this interdisciplinary solution in place. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance – Will Durant