If you need to find a place to go, just find JoJo.
JoJo, a 17-year-old student at the ChildBridge Center for Education, has a knack for navigating. Whether it is finding a football field in California or an entirely different country, JoJo has developed a skill for finding routes to where he wants to go.
“He has a love for Google maps and it is really amazing to see how he can find just about anywhere in the world on a map,” said Jessica Kingji, School Therapy and Clinical Coordinator. “He has a great level of independence and is super bright. He just absorbs information so quickly.”
While he has a passion for navigating maps, it is how he has navigated his six years at the ChildBridge Center for Education that has impressed his teachers and home managers. JoJo has developed incredible communication skills over the years, including a high-level ability to read and write.
When he first started writing letters, JoJo would communicate what he wanted to say through a device and Jessica would write it down. JoJo would later trace over it to learn the techniques. Now, JoJo can write without tracing in many cases and even knows how to address his letters.
His impressive ability to quickly learn was on full display when students were welcomed back in August after a months-long quarantine from the school. While he struggled with the remote learning during the quarantine, being back in the structure of the school immediately engaged him and he had made up regression within weeks.
Jessica said JoJo’s combination of independence, learning ability and communication skills make him a great candidate for many of Little City’s adult programming and even possible community employment in the future. In June when he turns 18, he will move to the post-high school transition program at ChildBridge Center for Education to start working toward those goals.
“Our kids don’t always match up with our adult programming, but I think he could be a huge success story at Little City. He checks all the boxes,” Jessica said. “He has taken up a special place in our staff’s hearts and is someone who always rejuvenates and energizes us.”
