News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech partnering with the Putnam County Schools’ Independence Program, helping special needs students live an independent life.
Exercise Science Lecturer Brad Westrick said the university helps with the physical education part of the program. Westrick said graduate students work with the participants of the program in various activities such as swimming and water safety. Westrick said the program gives students an experience they may never have had before.
“I have one student in particular Brandon Weston who is in a wheelchair and it gives him the opportunity to be out of his wheelchair and gives him some freedom in the water,” Westrick said. “He is always full of smiles anytime that he can get into the water. He is excellent at floating on his back and doing different aquatic skills in the water even though he is in a wheelchair.”
Westrick said many students are afraid of the water at first but by the end of the program, students enjoy spending time in the water. Westrick said he enjoys helping with the program and that working with special needs students is the highlight of his week.
The program focuses on students 18-22.
“They give back to me just as much as I give to them,” Westrick said. “So I’m truly blessed to be able to work with them as students and they are a joy to be around.”
Westrick said the program is not only inspiring to special needs students but for others as well.
“Just seeing what some of these swimmers are able to do,” Westrick said. “It’s definitely a motivation to see what these students are able to do for others.”
Westrick has dedicated a lot of his adult life to water safety as when he was a child he lost a three-year-old brother who drowned. Westrick said he considers it a gift to teach water safety to special needs students.
