Mya Oyler

For my Inspire Week, I chose to work with the Adaptive Sports Association (ASA). ASA is a non-profit organization that helps people with mental and physical disabilities participate in various outdoor activities. During the summer, they provide opportunities to hike and raft and in the winter they instruct skiing and snowboarding. For our volunteer work, we helped people to ski. Adaptive Sports does not turn anyone away and has the facilities to work with any type of disability. Depending on the person, the equipment and instruction will vary. For example, if someone can’t walk, they might be put in a sled which is held and steered by an instructor. If someone has a mental disability and can still walk and move, they would be put on skies with modifications such as a tether, a tip connecter, or a spacer. These are all to help the person stay balanced and in control. I worked with two kids with autism who could both ski fairly independently. 

 

Big Takeaways:

Through this experience, my biggest takeaway has been realizing how fortunate I am. Skiing has always been something I could do without any major obstacles and I took for granted how many people don’t have this opportunity. This made it incredibly rewarding to see people doing something that I love and enjoying it just as much as I do. Although I was only able to work with ASA for two days, I am interested in going back and continuing to do volunteer work in my spare time.  

 

Connections Between School and Work:

In any professional environment, it is vital to be able to communicate with your co-workers and groupmates and I think that Animas is teaching us a lot of these skills. When working with the volunteers at ASA, we had to use professional language and act with maturity. This was also important when we were working with our students. Through my time at Adaptive Sports, I’ve learned how to communicate with different types of people and create an understanding between us. 

 

Time Management:

Working with Adaptive Sports required us to make sure we were accommodating our student's schedules. This was especially important for working with the middle and elementary school groups because they had a very set schedule. They had to eat lunch at a certain time and be back to leave at a certain time which meant we had to pay attention to how many runs we were able to do with them. Even when we were not working with our students, we still had to manage our time. When they were eating lunch, we would get a break to go skiing on our own. We had to make sure we were back in time to continue instructing. 

 

Connections to YouScience:

On YouScience, my main aptitudes were 3D Visualizer, Investigator, and Collaborative Planner. It also emphasized that I was extroverted which definitely helped when working with unfamiliar people. My Inspire Week didn’t necessarily align with my aptitudes, but that did not affect my interest and enjoyment of the work. The work I did isn't really similar to what I’m looking to do in my career, but it was a really meaningful experience. 

 

Advice for Future Students:

I think the most important thing to consider is to choose something that you’re interested in and something you know will be meaningful to you. Working with Adaptive Sports actually was not my first Inspire Week choice, but I’m ultimately really glad I got it. Skiing is something that I love and I’m really passionate about and I got a lot out of instructing people that don’t have the same opportunities as me. Not only this, but it was overall really fun and I think that’s really important.