Plainfield Students Use Art to Mentor Special Needs Kids

Submitted by Plainfield School District 202

Plainfield East High School students are using art to mentor their special needs peers.

The Art Buddies program at PEHS includes junior and senior volunteers in the high school’s National Art Honor Society.

The Art Buddies meet monthly with 33 students in the Secondary Community Occupational Real-Life Education or SCORE program at PEHS. The Art Buddies help the SCORE students create an art project. In September, the students made a bottle cap keychain.

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The Art Buddies is in its second year, said Cindy Egizio, art teacher at PEHS and co-sponsor of the art honor society. PEHS art teacher Emily Tonon also sponsors the society.

The students suggested working with the SCORE kids, Egizio said.

“The Buddies like being able to use the art they know and love to affect students in a positive way,” said Egizio.

PEHS art students and Art Buddies Makenna Pranchke and Paige Guerrero said they enjoy working with the SCORE students through the program. The PEHS seniors said the program is teaching them patience and improving their social skills.

Michele Rickerson, special education teacher with SCORE, said the Art Buddies program is very rewarding for her students.

SCORE students have been taking art with Egizio since 2008 but the Buddy program offers Rickerson’s students the opportunity to work with their peers one-on-one.

“It is a lot of positive reinforcement from the peers to the students in our program,” she said.