March 5, 2026 By CDHD Student trainee impacts: Avery Pierce-Garnett The Idaho CDHD Student Trainee program recruits students from all academic disciplines. The intent is to provide real job experience, while demonstrating that all people, including people with disabilities, have the right to live, learn, work and play in their communities. Many times our trainees finish their time at the CDHD having grown both personally and professionally. And most of the time, as is the case with Avery Pierce-Garnett, they leave the CDHD with all the foundational knowledge they need to thrive along their career path. Avery graduated in 2023 with mathematics and music education and performance degrees. He is now a special education teacher in Moscow. We sat down for a catch-up on his professional pursuits and how the CDHD helped him achieve his goals. Do you remember what projects you worked on? Avery: I mostly did closed captioning. I also did document remediation – PDFs and word documents. I made them accessible. I also helped with other CDHD direct services – things like mock job interviews with people with disabilities. Oh nice! That’s great. Did you have a lot of fun with that one? Avery: Yeah, it was great. It was a great experience. I think that’s part of our Vandal QUEST program. Avery: Yeah, it is. We came in one day to the University of Idaho education building and interviewed those students in the 18-21 year old program. That’s great! What else do you remember about the CDHD and your time here? Avery: I was able to develop connections with my colleagues at the CDHD. Being able to communicate with them. I also got a lot of experience in remediating documents, closed captioning, you know – I got a lot of experience doing an office job. I know what an office job feels like – I had a desk job. I also learned how to – there was one time where my supervisor was gone so I was kind of in charge. I had to get there early, document stuff, answer phone calls … Self-leadership and time management, that kind of stuff. Avery: Definitely time management. You know and working a bit with other trainees. What do you miss the most about your time at the CDHD? Avery: I think what I miss the most is the people I was with. They were very supportive. My supervisors were very supportive. Colleagues were. That was the main thing. I also miss the flexibility the CDHD has. Especially working in the summer because I took quite a few days off and the Center allowed me to do that. I think the flexibility of working there is great. Oh, that’s right. You focused mainly on working with us in the summer, right? Avery: Yeah, the summer was where I was at mostly. Ok, so a little bit of flexibility was pretty handy. Avery: [Laughs] Yes! Are there any specific skills you picked up at the CDHD that have helped you post-graduation. In your career. Avery: Yeah, definitely. Document remediation helps me teach kids with different ways of learning. I currently teach special education at Moscow Middle School, so being able to work with all kids. For example, I am able to help kids with reading disabilities by doing things like enlarging text. Or students who are not as easily able to understand certain types of communication – I can set them up with voice to text. That really helps them a lot. Mainly, what I learned has really been implemented into the job I’m working for students with different ways of learning. That’s great! Especially with document remediation. Not many people love to do that. Avery: No no, it’s hard. I remember the training was very long. It’s really great that it’s a skill that you gained and you’re able to use it all the time. Avery: Yeah, yeah, it’s great. I understand it better. All that work paid off. Avery: Yeah [Laughs]. Are there any people at the CDHD who inspired you or supported you while you were pursuing your degree or your subsequent career. If so, who and how? Avery: I think definitely one of the people is Olivia Lebens. She really encouraged me to pursue work at the CDHD. She was able to help me learn skills that help me with my job now, in being a teacher. She was really supportive of that. Supportive of my career choices. Being a reference for me. She was very impactful during my time at the CDHD. Obviously there were other people too that were very supportive, helping me along my career pathway. Would you recommend the student trainee program to a current student? Avery: Yeah, I would definitely recommend it to a current student because it helps them to develop skills for future jobs … a lot of the stuff I did really applies to corporate jobs: answering phone calls, remediating documents, working on different projects, working well with other people. It also applies to teaching – with activities like artAbility and Movement in the Park. I definitely recommend it to students because it really helps them develop skills they’ll use in their future jobs. Aside from your professional pursuits, has the CDHD impacted your life in other ways? Avery: I think as a person, it helped me develop more. Compassion towards people from different backgrounds, people with disabilities, how to work with different people. I think mostly just understanding people better. How to communicate with people. I think I definitely grew as a person at the CDHD. Awesome! We’ll just switch gears a little bit. Can you tell me a little bit more about your current role, including your job title? Avery: I’m a special education teacher at Moscow Middle School. I’m also a paraprofessional for a couple of math classes there. I teach a group of about 10-15 students. I basically help them out with behavioral stuff. It’s a big part of my job. I teach them about reading, writing and arithmetic. I also help them develop better communication skills with each other – how to engage with each other. And I work as a para, working with other teachers. And are you still doing music as well? Avery: I’m performing music. I teach a few lessons in music, but I mostly perform. I gig about three times per week. Ok, yeah! That’s cool! Just around Moscow? Avery: Moscow, Lewiston, Walla Walla, Clarkston. I’ll probably be going on a tour with the band around Texas and Colorado. That’s so cool. What kind of music do you guys play? Avery: With the band I’m touring with, we play reggae fusion. We also play some jazz and some blues stuff. Multiple genres of music. We never read music. We just improvise a lot. We play melody and then we all switch out improvising. We interact with each other. We try to find the personality of music and the communication of music. You know, a piece of music is a way of communicating with each other, so we’re trying to find the personality of it in our group. That’s awesome, Avery! Very cool. Avery: Yeah. Sorry, we got off on a little sidetrack. I’ll take it back to your teaching role. How long have you been at this job? Avery: I started in August 2024. Can you provide a little bit of an overview of your role and the people it impacts. Avery: Yeah, as I said, mostly teaching kids behavior and how to work in a public setting. How to have good manners. Learning the foundational skills in life – reading, writing, arithmetic. My goal is to make a difference for those kids, so they can be successful in the future when they are at their jobs or in a public setting. I want them to be able to live as independently as possible. That’s basically my role as a special education teacher and paraprofessional. What is the most rewarding part of being a teacher for you? Avery: I think making a difference in people’s lives. Understanding how I’m a role model for them. They can talk to me if they are having trouble and know I’m here to help them. Knowing that they trust me as a teacher is a really big part of it. It’s great that you get this reward out of your work. And, do you think the CDHD contributed to your success as a teacher? Avery: Working with different types of people at the CDHD really helped me become more successful as a teacher. Even just doing Movement in the Park really helped me become a better teacher. Learning how to communicate. Learning about accommodations. And final question: Do you think you would have been prepared to step into this role without your time at the CDHD? Avery: I don’t think I would have been as prepared because I wouldn’t have had all that experience working with the disability community. Like the mock-interviews, learning how to interact with different students and different levels of abilities. Learning about document remediation. It has really helped me accommodate students with different levels of learning. I wouldn’t have had that foundation. I think the CDHD has been very important in my life. Being able to work in my current job, I think I’ve learned a lot from the CDHD. I think it is so cool that you have bene able to take the skills you gained at the CDHD and use them in so many different ways. Avery: Yeah! You’re helping these kids. So many times you pick up skills that you never use again, but you’ve found a way to work them into your schedule. Avery: Yeah! I’m glad too [laughs]. It’s a great way to put yourself out there in the world. Working at the CDHD, it’s a really great way to make connections for future jobs. You meet all these people at the CDHD. They are references. It’s a nice way to get a foothold into different careers. Mm hmm. An intro to office life, right? Avery: Pretty much [laughs]. It’s definitely helped me. It helped me get the job I have now!