For the last two years, Mississippi State University’s ACCESS program has offered a pathway for students with mental handicaps to be able to experience the college environment.
The ACCESS program at MSU allows mentally handicapped students to experience living and learning at college and provides options for education after high school.
Rhett Hobart, former Student Association president, said he is excited MSU offers such a program.
“We are the only school in the state that offers the program,” he said. “I think it’s a great benefit to our university, as we are the People’s University, and to our state in that we provide this great service to our residents.”
Three students are currently enrolled in the ACCESS program. Julie Capella, assistant dean and director of Student Support Services, said two more students are expected to join the program in the fall.
The ACCESS program offers flexibility and works to meet each of the students’ needs. The students take classes taught by Brecken Rush. They are given the option to audit standard MSU classes or to take them for credit.
“It’s a person-centered curriculum,” Rush said. “Each student’s curriculum is based on what would best suit them and their needs and what would help them reach their goals. Each curriculum is individualized.”
Students in the ACCESS program have the option of completing the program for a certificate, or  they can choose to get a degree. Carlene Pylate, Student Support Services assistant, said students that opt for a degree go through the same core classes and receive one just like one any other MSU student would get.
Beyond allowing students academic options after high school, the ACCESS program helps to teach them life skills. Some of the specialized classes offered by the program teach employment skills and skills for independent living.
Capella said the program is also a good way for students who might not have a chance otherwise to have an opportunity to experience the college environment.
“We offer a lot of integration into all things college,” she said. “Many of them are here for the college environment, and, so far, they’re really taking advantage of that. One of our students is in a sorority. They all go to ball games. One of them is a manager for the men’s basketball team.”
Through the ACCESS program, students are given the chance to form friendships with fellow MSU students. Students in the special education degree program sometimes work with ACCESS students. Capella said they have formed strong friendships.
“They have developed relationships outside what their regular duties are,” she said. “They’ve developed into almost a kind of family. They’ll get together and eat lunch with each other almost every day. Most Sunday nights, they get together and go out to have dinner somewhere.”
Kyle Jordan, SA senator, lives with one of the students in the ACCESS program.
“It’s really pretty cool,” he said. “He brings a different aspect to dorm life that you don’t normally see. He treats the RD in the hall the same way he treats the custodian, and he really is a role model for other students on how to treat people.”
Jordan said he and his roommate do many things together, from eating lunch to going to sporting events.
He said he is proud of MSU for implementing the ACCESS program.
“From living with someone in the program, I think it’s really cool for Mississippi State to be leading the way in this area,” Jordan said. “Anywhere we go on campus, they’re the stars. People love them. It’s the People’s University.”