Last Thursday, March 26, Emerson hosted the Job Olympics, an annual event where students in Special Education from across the district can compete in competitions specializing in tactical skills that help them find careers after high school. This includes activities like vacuuming, stacking boxes and hanging clothes.
Kayleigh Hoyt and Brook Ralston, special education teachers, have been helping students practice all year and had a direct role in the organization of the event. Hoyt started this event in Frisco ISD after she drew inspiration from another district. 

“I was asked to go observe Lewisville ISD because they do an event similar to this,” Hoyt said. “Last year, I wrote a grant and we did it at Brookhaven Church…This year we expanded it to host more high schools…Itt was us, Liberty, Lebanon Trail, Frisco, Independence, Heritage, Memorial and Reedy.”

Each of the events are designed to match skills students may encounter in retail jobs after graduation. These give them strong foundations for tackling career oriented skills in adult life.

“We had vacuuming, rolling silverware, straightening items, hanging clothes, mail sorting job interviews, recycling, keyboarding/typing grocery stocking, grocery bagging and then inventory,” Ralston said. 

Doing all these tasks isn’t as easy as it sounds, and the students have been preparing regularly for months now.

“Every Friday we do Functional Fridays in our program and we practice skills,” Hoyt said. “Then this whole week in our classes, we’ve been doing [practice] all day.”

Between the event organization and class preparation, a lot of effort has been put into the Job Olympics, and it’s been fulfilling for the students and adults involved. 

“To see it run smoothly was super rewarding,” Ralston said. “It was a lot of time and effort put into it beforehand, but it was great to see everyone enjoying it, everything running well and getting lots of compliments from people leaving…We had so much fun.”