Eye to Eye mentors, relates to students with disabilities

A group of Pitt students turn their experiences with learning disabilities into lessons for youngsters.

Pitt’s chapter of Eye to Eye, founded in 2012, mentors local middle school students with learning disabilities and educates collegiate and metropolitan communities in Pittsburgh about learning disabilities. Pitt’s chapter also inspired the recently created “community building toolkit” that the national office is distributing to other chapters. The toolkit offers chapters ideas on how to expand their programs beyond just mentoring, to building awareness of learning disabilities in their community. Some ideas in the toolkit are as simple as hosting a potluck dinner for members of the club, or putting on workshops for professors to learn how to effectively serve students. 

Kelly Fomalont has ADHD and is one of the two student coordinators of Pitt’s chapter of Eye to Eye. Pitt’s Eye to Eye board coordinates outreach programs, including a gala the group is hosting later this semester to raise money for speakers, summer camp programs and startup chapters at other schools, according to Fomalont, a senior majoring in psychology.

About 20 mentors travel once a week to Sterrett Classical Academy, a middle school in Point Breeze, for about an hour-and-a-half. They each pair with a middle school student who faces the same challenges as they do at school, to do art projects that focus on self-esteem, metacognition and self-awareness, Fomalont said. 

In one of Fomalont’s favorite projects, the mentees think of something they want the world to know about them and write it on a megaphone made out of construction paper.

“When I did this project, I was overcome with emotion. I realized I wanted the world to know so much about me, but I never had the platform to do it,” Fomalont said.  “I wrote ‘I do have ADHD even though I can sit still. I can pay attention. I am smart.’” 

Of the one in five Americans who have a learning disability, approximately 2.4 million are students, according to a 2014 report by the National Center for Learning Disabilities. The report also found that 66 percent of students with a learning disability leave high school with a regular diploma, almost 20 percent dropout and 12 percent receive a certificate of completion. 

Micah Goldfus, national program director of Eye to Eye, said the organization’s vision is based on the following situation: a student with a learning disability or ADHD enters the classroom, expresses to the teacher his or her needs as a student, and the teacher provides the student their needs. 

The goal of Eye to Eye, however, is for mentor and mentee to have a two-way conversation that helps students come up with their list of needs and to also understand themselves as unique individuals.

“Education and learning is a very individual experience and Eye to Eye encourages teachers to include students in figuring out how to get the most out of that experience,” said Goldfus, who is the only employee of the national office without a learning disability. 

Goldfus said these needs can be as basic as a student requesting to sit away from a window, which could cause a distraction, or something that requires extra planning, like taking tests in a separate room, free of distractions. 

Goldfus added that students, through sharing similar experiences with their mentees, support them in their ongoing battle of having a learning disability.

“It’s not a tutor organization,” Goldfus said. “It’s a social and emotional organization. Successful college students say, ‘I know what you’ve been through, I’ve been through it too, and together, we will find a way to succeed.’” 

Aleza Wallace, who graduated last August with a psychology degree from Pitt, was one of the founding members of Eye to Eye. Wallace said she is proud of the progress the group made in the past three years, which includes educating the public about learning disabilities to dispel common misconceptions. She discovered Eye to Eye in a book that she was reading, did some Googling, then contacted the national office and worked to bring it to Pitt.

“I started by approaching [Pitt’s] disabilities resources,” Wallace said. “I was like ‘Hey, I looked this up online and they looked interesting. I’m thinking about starting a chapter here, what do you think?’ and I got a very positive reaction from them and they were very supportive.”

To start the Pitt chapter, Wallace found a second student coordinator, attended a conference that trained coordinators, registered with the national office and found a school where they could mentor.  Through campaigning at the activities fair and hanging up countless flyers, Wallace finally started her chapter. 

“Some of it was just persistence,” Wallace said. “One in five people have a learning disability, so if you annoy people enough, someone has to fit the category.” 

Outside of the in-school mentoring program, the chapter holds awareness events and trainings for the University and the Pittsburgh community. One such event is called “Strike out the Stigma: Bowling Event,” a training event for the Nursing School faculty and the Academic Resource Center. 

Pitt’s work outside the classroom, Goldfus said, has contributed to Eye to Eye’s success. 

“Just like any other club, it has great leadership,” Goldfus said. “They see the mission not just as serving the mentees, but serving the entire city of Pittsburgh.”