June Excitement

This month the Bergen Center has had the opportunity to participate in various community events while celebrating the start of summer. Between conferences, charity runs, and awards ceremonies, our students and staff have kept busy!

This spring the New Jersey Department of Education’s Office of Special Education sponsored nine regional Dare to Dream Student Leadership conferences that highlight strategies to promote self-advocacy skills for middle and high school students with disabilities. Each conference featured keynote presentations from accomplished students from local educational agencies across the state and presentations from young adults with disabilities who have demonstrated exemplary self-advocacy and leadership skills. Additionally, the conference program included a variety of student-led workshop sessions on topics such as self-discovery, student self-advocacy, preparing to lead your individualized education program (IEP) meeting, and understanding your rights and responsibilities as a high school student in college and the workplace.

Our CBI-WBL and 18-21 program staff accompany students at the Dare to Dream Conference

This year four students from Mr. David’s class had the opportunity to meet and socialize with students from other programs, as well as support some of the presentations performed by Ridgefield Park and New Milford High School. They also participated in an open mic session after lunch performing selected songs karaoke style. This too was a great opportunity for our students to display their talents. We look forward to returning next year not only as invited guests, but as presenters!

Our two graduates carry the torch alongside the Haworth Police Department

We also had the honor of carrying the torch for the annual New Jersey Law Enforcement Torch Run for the Special Olympics! We walked and ran alongside the Haworth Police Department from our school to the Demarest border as one of 26 legs throughout the state. This annual event leads up to the Special Olympics New Jersey Summer Games, and this year over 3,000 police officers ran in the event. We were honored to participate for the third year in a row. 

Fiver Bergen Center Alumni return to school

As we are getting ready for our graduation celebrations, we were honored to hold our first annual CBI-WBL awards ceremony and alumni breakfast. We presented the Ruth Diebner award to this year’s winner, and had the opportunity to catch up with Bergen Center graduates from years past. It was amazing to see what they have accomplished since leaving our school, and we can’t wait to hold this event in the future.