Edmond Transition Academy -

❄️☃️ Winter Break is Here! ☃️❄️
We hope all of our interns, families, and staff enjoy a restful and joyful winter break filled with warmth, laughter, and special moments. We can’t wait to see everyone back refreshed and ready for the new year! 🎁🎉

Project SEARCH interns didn’t just visit the new Medical Office Building on our worksite campus… we left our mark! ✍️✨
This week we got to see the beam we all signed—right before it was hoisted to the top at the Topping Out ceremony! 🏗️🎉

👀 And that evergreen tree at the top? 🌲🤔 It’s more than just decoration… look up the symbolism!

Such an inclusive, hands-on learning experience and an unforgettable moment in history! 💙🙌

Want to join the Project SEARCH journey? 🚀
Check the link in our bio—Information Night details coming soon! 📅✨

#ProjectSEARCH #EdmondPublicSchools #CareerReadiness #InclusiveEducation

🎉 Join us in Celebrating Renae! 🎉
We are so thankful to have Renae on our team! 📚 This school year marks her third year with ETA, and she has supported nearly all of our interns during her time with us. 🏫👩‍🏫
Renae is dedicated to creating meaningful employment opportunities for every intern. 💼🛠️ She believes everyone can work and uses each person’s strengths to support ongoing job skill development. ✏️📈🧑‍💻
Thank you, Renae, for your dedication, guidance, and commitment to helping our interns succeed! 🙌🎓💛

🎉 Join us in Celebrating Kelli! 🎉
We are so grateful for Kelli and the incredible work she does supporting ETA, Project SEARCH, and students across EPS! 🙌
She has a solution-driven mindset 🧠 and willingness to help empower students, interns, and staff to reach their goals 🎯 and live their best lives 🌟.
Thank you, Kelli — our team is stronger because of you! 💪💛

ETA wants to wish our community a Very Happy Thanksgiving! See you on December 1st!

🔥 BEHIND THE SCENES
🍽️ ETA Community Lunch: Thanksgiving Feast 🦃

Take a behind-the-scenes look at everything that goes into preparing our ETA Community Lunches! In the days and weeks leading up to the event, our interns gain valuable real-world work experience while helping bring our Thanksgiving Feast to life. 🍁✨

👨‍🍳🍴 Restaurant Operations & Management
Our interns dive into key responsibilities such as:
• 📝 Menu Development & Design
• 👥 Staffing
• 📦 Supply Management
• 💲 Purchasing & Cost Control
• 😊 Customer Satisfaction

🍽️👋 Food Service & Table Service
On the day of the event, interns work in front- and back-of-house roles:
• 👨‍🍳 Chef, Sous Chef & Culinary Assistant
• 🎉 Host / Hostess
• 🍽️ Waitstaff
• 🧼 Bussing & Table Reset

🛍️🎨 Entrepreneurship: ETA Gift Shop
Interns also explore creative and business skills through:
• 🎨 Artistic Exploration & Product Creation
• 🛒 Purchasing, Pricing & Cost Control
• 📣 Marketing & Graphic Design
• 🎁 Packaging, Delivery & Order Fulfillment

🎉 Huge shoutout to Edmond Public Schools and the Edmond Public Schools Special Services Center for showing up and supporting our interns at every Community Lunch. We truly couldn’t do this without you! 💛🙌

🎉 Join us in recognizing Stephanie.

Stephanie’s passion for her work and family shines in everything she does! 💫 We’re so lucky to have had her with Project SEARCH since the very beginning. Her energy, dedication, and expertise have been key to our success — we couldn’t imagine this journey without her! 💜

🌟Project SEARCH interns attended the Oklahoma Transition Institute(OTI) Conference. For the second year now, OTI has offered session tracks for businesses, families, professionals and youth. The four Project SEARCH interns along with their Instructor and Skills Trainer attended motivating and critical sessions. These sessions provide opportunities to learn about resources and services that support youth with disabilities as well as education in this field. The Interns made new friends, saw many faces they know from several agencies who support them and networked while visiting vendor tables. The interns met the conference keynote speaker, LeDerick Horne, during a youth oriented session and participated in an activity called Finding your Voice/ Planning for your Future. Mr. Horne shared his struggles growing up with a disability and how various people and resources helped him get to where he is today. 👌

✨Great Job representing EPS and Project SEARCH!👏

The Project SEARCH interns participated in a variety of activities during the Month of October. At the beginning of the month, the interns attended a Career Fair where they asked questions at the vendor tables to learn about the business and what positions were open. They came home with a lot of swag!

Interns were invited to assist the staff at Integris Health Edmond with decorating for the annual event- Haunt the Hospital. 🦇👻🦄👽

On Halloween some interns dressed up along with hospital staff. Check out the creativity exhibited in the annual pumpkin decorating contest. Contest winner will be added to the comments section at a later date! 🎃🏆

🌧 ☂️ A rainy day did not impede our Pumpkin Patch plans! We ventured out to discover pumpkins and gourds of all shapes, sizes, textures, and sounds. Thanks to the staff at The Stand and some last-minute problem-solving, we were able to enjoy our Pumpkin experience without leaving the bus.

🎃😁 Our appreciation goes to The Stand for adapting to the weather and delivering a pleasant pumpkin experience. They were flexible with our change in plans and gave us lots of information about pumpkin varieties. We were most surprised by the musical pumpkin. 🎼🪇

#ShineYourLight @ThePumpkin&ChristmasTreeStand @TheStandOK

🍂Fall Break is here. There is no school from October 16-20.
🍁Have a great break! We can't wait to hear your Fall Break stories on Tuesday, October 21.

🥳 ETA Community Lunch was a success on Friday. Interns worked for two weeks to prepare for this event. They determine what the menu will be, build a budget, shop and stay on budget, prepare food items before the event, cook during the event, develop products for the ETA Gift Shop to sell on site, use marketing skills to make a flyer and Google Form RSVP, select images for the Point of Sale (POS) app to represent food items that can be ordered, organize the POS on the IPAD to ensure ease of use while serving customers, select jobs they will complete for the event, practice their job, and so much more.

🥔🥗 What we served this month: Lemonade, Baked Potato Bar, Salad, and Apple Crumble

👻Thank you to our supporters throughout EPS, EPSAC, and SSC for attending our event and supporting our interns and staff.

🦃Look out next month for a Behind the Scenes of the Community Lunch post, where we will showcase all of the planning and prep involved!

We ended the week strong, demonstrating our refined cooking skills. Salad and Smoothies! Each intern plays a crucial part in cooking sessions, experimenting with new tools to drive success and autonomy. 🥗🍹👨‍🍳🔥

Our interns took advantage of the beautiful weather this week and went outside to enjoy some fresh air and fun with the Movement Club.

Project Search interns learned about privacy today with toothpaste! This activity provides a powerful and tangible representation demonstrating that once information is shared, it is impossible to take it back.

Learn more about Project Search by heading to the link in our bio.

We love a trip to Braums for lunch! Interns worked on ordering their own food, budgeting, and money management. Of course we made sure to save enough money for ice cream! 😋🍦

Because of continued isolated icy roads in parts of our district as well as slick and dangerous parking lots and sidewalks, Edmond Public Schools will move to remote learning for all schools for Thursday, February 13th. Students should refer to information sent by their school site for assignments that will need to be completed for attendance to be counted. Based on the current forecasts, we plan to be back to in-person school on Friday.

Because of the predicted freezing rain creating poor road conditions overnight, Edmond Public Schools will move to remote learning for all schools for Wednesday, February 12th. Students should refer to information sent by their school site for assignments that will need to be completed for attendance to be counted. Updated to reflect correct date.

Join us on April 10th for our EPS Community Resource & Transition Fair! There will be Vendors, Core Value Awards, Food Trucks, and more! This is a come-and-go event from 6pm to 7:30pm.

Because of an increasing number of student and staff absences this week, we have made the difficult decision to close school for all Edmond Public Schools for tomorrow, Friday, January 31st. Extracurricular activities will continue as scheduled.   This decision was made in advance to give our families and staff members time to prepare. We will let you know as soon as possible how this instructional time will be made up.   We look forward to seeing your students back in class on Monday morning.