Successful Transitions, an Affiliate of CareerBOOST™, a South Carolina Commission for the Blind program, is set up to fulfill the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA) while specifically providing funding and training for Pre-Employment Transition Services (PRE-ETS). We serve students with visual impairments between the ages of 13 and 21 that have an IEP, 504 Plan or who are VR eligible to prepare them for successful employment.
Our services provide advanced real-life training experiences to assist impaired students on their journey to independence. Services include Vocational Rehabilitation training to empower, educate, and encourage students with disabilities by giving them the proper knowledge and education needed to succeed in the workforce and everyday life.
Successful Transitions is a program under the NFB of SC
At Successful Transitions (ST) we are proud of every student we have the pleasure of working with; and because of that we want to take an opportunity to highlight some of our special students. For the month of March 2021 ST wants to feature an amazing young student named Ashlee Lockerman. Ashlee is an 11th grader, a YouTuber, an AWESOME home cook, a pet lover of two beautiful pet dogs (a golden retriever/yellow lab mix and a chocolate lab), and an all-around joy to be around. She has been participating in the ST program for the last 3 – 4 years. Ashlee has worked closely with Loretta Green (a Transition Consultant with ST who is best known as Ms. Loretta) during her time with ST. When asked about Ashlee, Ms. Loretta stated, “Ashlee is very dedicated. She is never sad or down and she’s always happy or bubbly.” Ms. Loretta goes on to say that she has enjoyed working with Ashlee since day one and she is a true pleasure. One if the reasons why Ashlee is so successful is that she does have a great support system at home through her family.
Ashlee is a huge fan of the ST program and she says that she has learned a lot since taking part on this program. Ashlee says that, “I really like that Successful Transitions teaches me about job skills and organizational skills for the home.” And it Ashlee’s growth over the years is truly apparent in just how well she performs at each of her internships. Over the years Ashlee has received three (3) internship placements through ST. With a huge smile in her voice, Ashlee admits, “My favorite things that I’ve done through Successful Transitions are my job internships.” To date Ashlee has had work assignments at: 1. Colleton County High School, 2. Colleton County Medical Center, and 3L Georgia K-9 SC. Ashlee says that her favorite internship is when she was placed at Georgia K-9 because she loves animals.
Ashlee is a great worker and representative for the ST program because of her high performance at her work assignments. According to Ms. Loretta, "She has always done well with all her internships. She has always received good reports from each assigned worksite."
As stated earlier in this piece, Ashlee has a full life with a great support system. Ashlee loves hanging with her family and has learned a lot from being around her grandmother. Ashlee credits some of her best recipes as being taught to her from her grandmother. You can only imagine that Ashlee’s grandmother helped her develop her love of cooking, which Ashlee used to inspire her to start a YouTube channel. Ashlee’s YouTube channel is all about being a “home cook”. She provides start-to-finish cooking demonstrations of all types of tasty dishes. She says that her best cooking tip is to “always wash your hands” while in the kitchen. Ashlee loves providing videos on her YouTube channel, but she says what she likes most about having her channel is that she can show people with disabilities that they can do anything.
Ashlee is a wonderful young lady, whom so many speak high of. She has been a tremendous participant in the ST program and has grown over the years under the guidance of the ST staff and her family. She is an example of what hard work, dedication, and a willingness to learn the material provided by ST can do to assist in molding our young students.