American writer and humorist Leo Rosten once said “The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to matter. To be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.”
Andrea Arens is a Special Education Teacher at Nexus-Indian Oaks Family Healings’ Safe Harbor School, teaching Functional Academics, or Independent Living Skills, to her students. Skills that would normally be taught by family, friends, or in a public school. However, since many Nexus-Indian Oaks youth come from different circumstances and have not had a normal childhood, they have not learned these crucial skills for maintaining a job, getting a place to live, and interacting with different people every day.
“Our focus is on Independent living skills,” said Andrea, “so job skills, safety skills, personal care, hygiene, laundry, cooking, cleaning, interpersonal and social skills…it’s a whole different set of academics.”
Andrea talks a lot about the Rosten quote with her students and what it means to have a purpose. Her classroom is made up of five boys who are living with intellectual disabilities, autism, emotional and behavioral issues, and trauma.
Though they are preparing them for the adult world, Andrea finds the most joy in just allowing her students to be kids every now and then.
A rewarding moment for Andrea was when she and her students decided to just sit down and watch something on TV, and her kids chose Sesame Street. “They’re kids. A lot of people forget that” said Andrea “most of them did not have a normal childhood…some of my most rewarding moments are when they can just be kids…it’s never a dull moment.”
Andrea works hard to create learning opportunities outside the classroom that involve purpose. One of those learning opportunities is teaching the students how to operate the school’s coffee cart, Eagle Nest Café.
“Every month our mobile coffee cart rolls out to serve free coffee and donuts to our employees. Groups of youth take turns staffing the cart to practice customer service skills with volunteer consumers.” said Andrea. For the first time ever, Andrea’s class took charge of the cart.
Andrea’s class brought the coffee cart back in January 2024 and has hosted it every month since. They’re currently the only class hosting the Eagle Nest Café.
“The kids got really excited about it, and a lot of them felt great to have a purpose,” said Andrea. “Some staff would come by 3 or 4 times to have multiple orders…they really seemed to enjoy it.”
“When we decided to do the coffee cart, my paraprofessional and I decided to act like supervisors at a real job,” said Andrea. “We set everything up, but it’s up to them to run it…the experience enables them to have those independent interactions with staff, in a less directive sort of way.”
While the shifts didn’t go without a few hiccups, the students did great. “We appreciated the support from our employees,” said Andrea. “The more the boys communicate and react to people, the better they get at their social skills.”
An opportunity like the coffee cart is a way for youth to not only practice employee and teamwork skills, but a way to independently learn. The youths had to provide good customer service, take, and make orders correctly, and learn how to behave appropriately and professionally.
Building Self-Confidence
“The youth feel better about themselves and have more self-positive enforcement when they have a purpose,” said Andrea, “so we look forward to help them find the things that they enjoy giving them purpose.”
It’s also a fun way for staff to interact with the youth in a different way. The youth get to manage the interaction, by performing a customer service role, versus a typical staff-youth interaction. Some staff even pretended to give the youth a hard time, to prepare them for real-life difficult customers.
Andrea’s students can’t wait to work the coffee cart each month. Here’s what the youth had to say:
- “I felt like I was independent.”
- “I liked serving and socializing with the staff.”
- “I had so much fun. I want to do it more often!”
- “I enjoyed talking to people.”
- “I learned to smile and be more respectful.”
- “I felt nervous but got better at it, and showed my teacher that I can work.”
- “I did a good job!”
