RSO Spotlight: Organization of Students with Disabilities

By Laura Levin
Western Herald

The Organization of Students with Disabilities at Western Michigan University works to ensure that people understand the capabilities of students with disabilities.

“The three pillars of OSD are service, support and education,” said Kathryn Shelley, president of OSD.

“OSD volunteers in service projects throughout the community in order to make the general public more aware of the fact that disabled persons can, in fact, make a positive contribution to society. In doing this, we hope to educate others,” Shelley said.

OSD hopes to inform people on different types of disabilities and to teach people to be there as a support systems for disabled students, she said.

“Another way we go about educating people, especially students on campus, is to hold question [and] answer sessions, and give information about various disabilities and how the people who have them cope on a daily basis,” Shelley said.  “Lastly, we are here to provide support to the disabled population on campus and to let them know that they are not alone in the challenges they face.”

Currently there are only nine members of OSD but the group is looking to increase this number, Shelly said. She hopes to see at least 15 students in the organization before the fall semester begins.

Shelly encourages anyone who is interested in helping out within the community or just wants to learn more about students with disabilities to join.

“We’re really fun.  We do have a lax, social environment and we try to make everyone feel welcome,” Shelley said.

“If you like participating in service projects, would like to learn more about persons with disabilities, or just really like meeting with a group of people to talk to every week, OSD is most definitely for you.”

Shelly said she believes that disabled and non-disabled students alike can learn a lot from each other and can be of great help towards one another, simply by being there for support.

Meetings are held every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Room 207 of WMU’s  Bernhard Center.  Students can join the organization simply by attending meetings.

For more information, contact OSD at rso_osd@wmich.edu.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=24906

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Apr 3 2011. Filed under Breaking, Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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