#ShareYourCAAStory: Beautiful Testimony from a CAA Student & her Mom

March 15, 2021

“By Paige Delaney Kowalski, with help from Mom:

I am Paige and I am 22-years old. I live with my sister and my mom and my cat. I already graduated from Post Secondary. I go to a Day Program at Mission College and I take music, dance, and cooking classes at College of the Adaptive Arts. Before COVID-19, I worked at the Holiday Inn doing laundry and helping in the Breakfast Room. I like to dance and sing and hike with my mom and help my mom with cooking and cleaning. I like to talk about movies and actors and singers. I Google my favorite stars so I can learn more about them. I love being a part of Young Life Capernaum and I want to be a leader so I can help the younger kids. I love being a greeter at church and helping the little kids in the Sunday School. I play Little League Baseball and I am a big hitter. When I grow up, I want to be on American Idol and Dancing With The Stars. I love my life and I am happy I have Special Needs because I have a special love.”

“When Paige was born, the doctors and the books and the experts gave me lists of things Paige would never learn to do. It felt like I had been kicked in the gut. I felt nothing by dread for her future. Thankfully that feeling of dread got kicked to the curb when I started meeting with teachers and therapists and I realized I was the expert in my own daughter’s capabilities.

Paige has an amazing life. She is compassionate and caring. She loves helping others. She is resourceful and smart. When she was little, she brilliantly used her toys as tools to open locks and latches and escape the house. She is creative. She choreographs dances to her favorite songs. She is kind and loving. She encourages her friends and always has something uplifting to say about them or to them. She has strong opinions and is not afraid to say how she feels. She experiences a full range of emotions and expresses them all. She is constantly learning new things. She is a sponge for information and new skills. COVID-19 opened up a new discipline of remote learning. While she prefers to meet in person, she has learned new skills in her classes and has mastered using email!

Last Summer, Paige enrolled in College of the Adaptive Arts. She is taking some amazing courses! When she’s not baking up a storm in her Joy of Baking class, she is learning about the importance of warming up and breath control and posture in Concert Choir. She is learning so much about musical theater and watching classic musicals in her Musical Theater Appreciation Class. She is brand new to cheerleading and she is already choreographing her own routines in Cheer Squad. She is learning about history and culture while perfecting dance moves in Contemporary and Cultural Dance. And she is expressing her joy and love of musical theater in Joy of Broadway Dance.

Just like Paige, I LOVE her life. And I am happy she has special needs and I want to soak up every bit of her special love.”

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College of Adaptive Arts Co-Sponsors Accessibility Event Featuring the First Deafblind Graduate of Harvard Law

By Michael Reisman • February 10, 2025

Disability Advocate Haben Girma to Speak at West Valley College February 12 (Saratoga, Calif., January 22, 2025) Haben Girma, nationally recognized disability rights advocate and the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law, will be coming to the Bay Area for a free Assistive Technology Fair which will feature a special talk, book signing, and campus tours. Girma is a Bay Area native and a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice. President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change, and the World Health Organization appointed her Commissioner of Social Connection. She has also received the Helen Keller Achievement Award, a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and TIME100 Talks. Harnessing the power of the written word to spark advocacy, Girma wrote and published the book that became a bestseller, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. The story takes readers on adventures around the world, including her parents’ homes in Eritrea and Ethiopia, building a school under the scorching Saharan sun, training with a guide dog in New Jersey, climbing an iceberg in Alaska, fighting for blind readers at a courthouse in Vermont, and working with President Biden and President Obama at The White House. College of Adaptive Arts, a non-profit college serving over 250 adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), is sponsoring the event along with West Valley College’s DESP services, David Wang Educational Endowment and EOPS in an effort to provide information and programs to those experiencing disability. “Haben Girma is a great example of how to transform perceptions of people with disabilities,” said Nicole Kim, Executive Director of College of Adaptive Arts (CAA). “Like many of our students with IDD, she’s had challenges to overcome, but being able to access higher education was instrumental to her growth and success. She is a great example of the change one person can affect if just given the opportunity.” The event is free to the public and takes place Wednesday, February 12 from 10am-2pm at West Valley College’s Campus Center at 14000 Fruitvale Avenue in Saratoga, CA. For additional information, or to RSVP, please visit www.bit.ly/wvc-atf2025

College of Adaptive Arts Announces Nicole Kim as New Executive Director

By Michael Reisman • June 11, 2024

Longtime CAA Director Nicole Kim Brings New Energy, Vision, and Leadership to the Educational Nonprofit

College of Adaptive Arts Co-Founder DeAnna Pursai Added To the Human Atlas Project

By Michael Reisman • April 1, 2024

College of Adaptive Arts co-founder DeAnna Pursai was recently selected as one of the profiles for the prestigious Human Atlas project . Human Atlas projects are research-based, interdisciplinary explorations of the people of a specified geography. They are built on an extensive nomination process from a carefully curated group. These individuals profiled are championing and driving social impact in all its forms: from public servants to entrepreneurs, from non-profit leaders and activists to artists and scientists.