Champlain Student Serves on State Council for the Disabled

By Danielle Frawley ’08

Many students dream about making a difference in the world after graduating from college. For Heidi Viens ’08, a visually impaired student at Champlain College, that dream has already come true. In fact, Viens recently completed her first full year of service with Vermont’s State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) for the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired (DBVI), an advocacy group within the Agency of Human Services. Viens, a Business major from Essex, Vermont, was named to the council in September 2006 -- a prestigious appointment recognizing her ability to inform disability policymaking statewide.

All SRC members have either a disability or a close connection to the state’s disabled community. Their primary roles involve conducting research in Vermont communities to provide legislators with recommendations for improving opportunities and conditions for the state’s disabled residents. “We have insight that lawmakers don’t,” Viens says.

The council’s most recent initiatives focused on three areas: employment, technology, and transition. Viens has been working on a team of four individuals responsible for exploring transition -- specifically, how the State helps disabled young people transition into independent, self-sufficient lives in their communities. “Thirty percent of blind adults work,” Viens notes. “[So] our first recommendation was that the transition needs to start younger and younger with disabled children in schools. They need to learn to transition into the real world before they turn 16.

“Our second recommendation was that all schools, whether big or small, should have uniform funding and resources,” she adds. “Schools in the Northeast Kingdom should have just as many resources as those in Essex or Burlington.”

Viens’s views and dedication have made her a valued member of the DBVI team. “Heidi is very bright and very determined,” says Scott Langley, assistant director for the DBVI. “She is very willing to take on challenges and has come a long way. I knew her when her impairment was new to her, and she was very willing to try new things in the community.”

In addition to fulfilling her responsibilities to the SRC, in her final year at Champlain, Viens is completing a self-designed internship that involves a study of Champlain’s accessibility to visually impaired members of the campus community. She’s investigating accessibility of information, the physical campus environment, and technology available to the visually impaired. She’s also examining faculty members’ protocols and standards for visually impaired students in their classes. Her final report will be reviewed by the College administration for areas in which Champlain might better serve visually impaired students, faculty, and staff members.

While Viens’s findings have not yet been compiled, her diligence in the effort -- as an SRC member and as a Champlain student -- have come to distinguish her to teachers, such as Professor Jim Whitney, program director of the Business major. “Heidi is a highly motivated individual, and her name was forwarded to the governor because those who know Heidi believe in her ability to deliver,” he says. “Her strength of personality already has people within the commission talking about her future leadership potential.” DBVI Director Fred Jones concurs: “Heidi is very positive,” he says. “She has lots of energy and good ideas and she is a good team player. … She is a role model to her peers, and that is what we are looking for.”

Viens takes leadership opportunities seriously and feels confident that she’s up for the tasks before her. “I earned my membership on the SRC not because I was in college,” she says, “but because of who I am as a person.”