ANAHEIM : Special Students Get Career Advice

Even though school has just started, about 200 seniors from the Anaheim Union High School District spent Tuesday thinking where they were headed once the year ends.

Those students were participating in the district’s annual career day, and their choice of careers or educational plans for next year was even more difficult than it will be for some of their peers: All of the youngsters participating in the event Tuesday have some sort of disability.

Those disabilities include physical and developmental handicaps as well as learning problems such as dyslexia and poor reading comprehension, officials said. For all of the students, their disabilities make planning for the future more challenging.

“We really feel the need to bridge the gap” between high school and the working world, said Cheryl Escoe, career specialist for the district and organizer of the half-day conference. Counselors supervised sessions at Brookhurst Community Center in retail sales, recreation services, advertising and a host of other fields. Other seminars touched on a range of topics, providing advice on preparing for a job interview, applying to a community college and responding to harassment at work.

And some of the job opportunities were novel ones.

“How many of you know what a bone picker is?” asked Stan Corella, a job-placement specialist at the North Orange County Regional Occupational Program. “A bone picker is someone who picks the bones out of tuna so you don’t get bones in your tuna fish.”

Students said they walked away from the conference with some new information and some uplifting advice, much of that provided by the event’s first speaker, former football star and actor Rosey Grier.

“He was encouraging,” said Denise Evans, 16, who said she must battle her extreme shyness as she looks for work.

“I learned about communication,” she said. “I want to get over this shyness.”

Niki Amendola, 17, who is a slow learner in math, said the most interesting part of the workshop for her was the discussion about harassment in the workplace.

“Now I know there are places I can turn to, if you have been sexually harassed at work; there are numbers I can call,” said Niki, who hopes to get a job working with animals after graduating in June.

But even more important than some of the specifics, teachers said, was the event’s overall message. Jack Zisko, work-experience coordinator at a special education school for the severely handicapped, reminded the students that the future is theirs to tackle.

“You can’t depend on your mothers or fathers or guardians to do this,” he said. “If you’re going to be responsible on the job, you have to be responsible for getting the job.”