College program gives neurodivergent students a place to ‘SHINE’

INA, Ill. (KBSI) – One local college is making a big impact this year by empowering students with neurodivergence profiles.

Rend Lake College is paving a path to success for neurodivergent students through their new SHINE program.

Mindy Reach is the program, Director; she talks about the program.

“The SHINE program is a program designed to help students who have a neurodivergent diagnosis to navigate college and all the little ins and outs that you need to know to be successful with college and then to be employable after college also” says Reach.

According to higher education resources there’s a lack of neurodivergent programs for college students.

Making the transition into college and employment can be a hard change for someone neurodivergent. With less than a dozen programs listed in the US for college students. Reach says Rend Lake is proud to offer the SHINE program to any student with a neurodiverse diagnosis.  

“The Chronicle of Higher Education just put out a publication recently that said that tens of thousands of students are graduating from high school every year that have a diagnosis that are neurodivergent and only a handful of schools have a program that are for those students, and those students need that extra support usually” says Reach.

College can be overwhelming for the typical college student between new academic expectations, the freedom, and pressure to fit in and make friends in a new place and these things are magnified for someone neurodivergent with autism spectrum disorder or other diagnosis. Reach shares that the SHINE program will allow for those students to just that-shine.  

“What we’re planning to do is have some one-on-one time with students to have some goal setting and find out what barriers they might already have”, says Reach “and we can help the overcome those barriers and then we also want to do group meetings so that we have a community of students so that they have fun together and support each other as well.” 

For more details or to enroll: SHINE | Rend Lake College