Connecting a JET Paraprofessional to her very Specialized Teaching Goal

Jenn Kelley has worked as a paraprofessional for over 10 years at Charlestown High School, which also happens to be her alma mater. She is a special education paraprofessional and loves working one-on-one with severely disabled special needs students to help them access the classroom curriculum. When Jenn joined the JET Program in 2016 she was starting her college course work practically from scratch but she knew where she was headed. She wanted to be a Teacher of Severe Disabilities. During Jenn's first year in the program, JET learned of a new part-time licensure program in Severe Disabilities at Boston University (BU) designed for paraprofessionals like herself. After just one year at Bunker Hill Community College, she applied for and was accepted into the BU program starting in Fall 2017. Jenn continues to take general education courses at Bunker Hill while taking teacher licensure course work at Boston University. This amounts to 3.5 courses per semester, including Saturday classes, while still working full time in her BPS classroom Monday to Friday. But Jenn is highly motivated to reach her goal of becoming a special education teacher, a profession she already knows she loves.