One of the most meaningful parts of my work is watching a student begin to recognize what they are capable of – and then take a step toward it.
Sometimes that step is enrolling in a college course. Sometimes it is emailing a professor, inviting a peer to spend time together, managing a disagreement with a roommate, or recognizing when they need help and asking for it. Each of these moments represents something important: a student developing the skills and confidence to take greater ownership of their life.
That is the work at the heart of Franklin College Connections.
The transition after high school brings exciting opportunities alongside new expectations. College students must manage assignments, communicate with professors, navigate unfamiliar environments, and organize days that may have relatively little built-in structure. Outside the classroom, they are also learning how to build friendships, share living spaces, manage personal responsibilities, and make decisions with greater independence. For neurodivergent young adults, academic readiness and readiness to manage all of those demands do not always develop at the same pace.
A student may be fully capable of challenging college-level work while still benefiting from explicit support with planning, self-regulation, social communication, or navigating unfamiliar systems. Too often, students can be placed in a position where they are expected either to manage all of that independently or step away from opportunities for which they are academically ready.
FCC is designed to create another path.
Students can continue moving forward academically while intentionally developing the skills they will need to sustain that progress with greater independence over time. Through opportunities such as courses at CT State Community College and UConn Early College Experience courses at Franklin, students can engage in college-level learning while continuing to develop the habits that support success.
Our advising may begin with an assignment, a deadline, or a schedule, but the larger purpose is helping students better understand themselves as learners. Students explore questions such as: What helps me get started? How do I recognize when I am becoming overwhelmed? What should I do when I do not understand an assignment? How can I organize my week so there is room for both academic responsibilities and the things that matter to me? Through real situations, students practice answering those questions.
They learn to use office hours and writing centers, communicate about accommodations, break larger projects into manageable steps, and adjust when a plan does not work. Over time, the goal is for students to recognize what they need and take an increasingly active role in accessing it. Independence does not mean never needing support. It means understanding when support is needed, knowing how to seek it, and gradually taking greater ownership of what happens next. And much of that learning happens outside the classroom.
Managing laundry, planning a meal, keeping track of belongings, navigating transportation, or negotiating the use of a shared kitchen all require planning, flexibility, communication, and awareness of others. These everyday responsibilities give students repeated opportunities to apply many of the same skills they are developing academically.
Our independent living instruction connects directly to those experiences. Students receive support with personal routines, room organization, community participation, and the social realities of living alongside other people. Weekly house meetings provide opportunities to discuss shared spaces, make plans, solve problems, and address household concerns together. These are not simply chores or routines. They are opportunities for students to practice having a voice in a community while recognizing that their choices affect the people around them.
Relationships are equally central to the work. Students are often more willing to ask questions, receive feedback, or try something unfamiliar when they feel known and respected. Taking the time to understand each student’s interests, strengths, goals, and sources of stress allows us to make support more personal and purposeful.
An interest in theater, animals, sports, art, or gaming can become an entry point for connection. A shared outing, card game, or recurring activity can give students a natural reason to spend time together. Staff may initially help a student initiate a plan, consider another person’s perspective, or navigate the discomfort that sometimes comes with a new relationship.
Over time, we want students doing more of that work themselves. Belonging develops through repeated experiences of being invited, showing up, contributing, and discovering that you have something to offer.
As Director of Franklin College Connections, I see progress most clearly in the moments when students begin approaching familiar challenges differently.
A student recognizes rising frustration and asks for a break before returning to the task. Another reaches out to a professor instead of avoiding a difficult assignment. A student who has been waiting for others to initiate takes the first step toward making plans. Those moments can be easy to overlook, but they tell us a great deal about a student’s growing self-awareness, confidence, and ability to navigate what comes next.
FCC gives students room to practice while their lives are expanding beyond high school. They can pursue academic interests, explore future directions, take appropriate risks, make mistakes, and learn from experience with support still close at hand. The goal is not to create dependence on that support. It is to use support intentionally so students can need less of it—or use it differently—as they grow.
My hope is that students leave FCC with a clearer understanding of themselves: what they value, how they learn, what support helps them succeed, how they build relationships, and how they want to participate in the world. Along the way, they build something even more important than a record of completed courses or mastered routines. They build evidence of their own capability,one conversation, one decision, and one new experience at a time.
