June 17, 2025 By CDHD Student trainee impacts: catching up with Grace Vitek The Idaho CDHD Student Trainee Program brings University of Idaho students from all academic disciplines to the Center to work as paid interns. This provides an opportunity to learn real job skills. It’s a chance for students to gain professional exposure and develop both personal and professional relationships. In addition, CDHD student trainees learn about disability. This includes everything from disability history in the United States to how to support people with disabilities in all spaces and environments. When our student trainees graduate, they leave the Center having gained job and life skills that set them up for success on whatever path they choose to take. This is certainly the case with Grace Vitek, a recent CDHD student trainee and current Elementary Teacher bound for Alaska. We sat down for a catch-up with Grace as part of a new series of articles focused on our past trainees. We talked with Grace about the impact the CDHD had on her during the pursuit of her degree and beyond. We also covered where she’s at now and the impact she’s having on the communities she’s working with. Hello, Grace! Thank you for your time. Let’s start off super easy. What year did you graduate? Grace: I graduated in December 2024 with a Bachelors in Elementary Education with an endorsement in Special Education. Can you tell us what projects you worked on while you were here? Grace: Yeah, I worked with SAM (Self-Advocates of Moscow) for a year and with Vandal Quest for a year. Oh yes, you were one of the first trainees to work with the Vandal Quest program, is that right? Grace: I was the first one. Yeah! That’s very cool. What do you remember most about your time working with these projects and at the CDHD? Grace: I think I remember the community the best – being able to work with other trainees and the relationships I built with them. We’re still good friends today and I see them often. I was also able to build relationships with mentors. I definitely remember much I grew and benefited from that. That’s fantastic! It hasn’t been that long since you left us, but is there anything you miss about your time at the CDHD? Grace: I miss the people. I miss the people that I worked with in the programs – the members of SAM and Vandal Quest – because we worked together. In Vandal Quest, I was a Peer Mentor, so in a way, they were my students. They were some of the first students that I worked with, so I miss them in that regard. I also miss the friends I made along the way. It's so great that you were able to develop those personal friendships as well as professional relationships that you can draw on as your continue throughout your career. This leads quite nicely to my next question. Are there any specific skills that you picked up at the CDHD that have helped you transition from University into the professional world? Grace: Yeah, definitely! Learning more of the professional communication – how do I talk to colleagues and supervisors, or, what’s the proper way to respond to people in different circumstances – over phone or over email. Picking up different skills like that were super helpful. Also, learning even better management of my time and where to allocate resources at the right times. Even more specifically, I learned so much more about advocacy and how to advocate for people with disabilities. I also learned how to teach self-advocacy. In the projects I worked on, I worked directly with people with disabilities the majority of my time. I really learned how to build those skills for myself in advocating for the people I worked with, and then also in teaching those young adults how to advocate for themselves. That’s awesome! It must have been so relevant for your degree and career goals to gain that direct experience. Grace: Yeah! Olivia Lebens, the Student Trainee Program Coordinator, taught me so much about being a professional as well as the disability and advocacy world … Olivia really supported me in getting involved, finding the right project for me, and helping me really grow in that. She gave me the freedom and trust to be able to spearhead the project with Vandal Quest. All of this was in partnership with Andew Scheef, my direct supervisor in the Vandal Quest program. Both supported me tremendously in trusting me to let me take the lead and build leadership skills and learn how to manage myself and others. I would say they empowered me and really supported me in advocating for myself while bringing up those around me. That’s really great! And given that experience, would you recommend the student trainee program to a current student? Grace: Yeah, I definitely would. I can connect the majority of my growth in college back to my internship and time at the CDHD. Especially for what I was studying, it was so applicable to my career immediately after college. I can see how having more of the hands-on experience and being challenged so much more to grow and push myself really helped me to excel in the classroom. It also helped with my confidence as an individual going into the workplace. What would you say to a student to convince them to join the program? Grace: I would say that … well, it really stands out on your applications and your resume! I’ve definitely experienced that recently. People notice that extra work you put in and you’re going to notice it too. You’re going to see that growth within yourself. It’s really exciting and really encouraging. When you’re looking for jobs in the future, employers are going to really notice that. They’re going to want to know more and you’re going to have a lot to share! Because you get to do a lot as a part of the trainee program. You really get to choose what you learn to a pretty significant degree. There’s so much support in whatever ways you want to grow professionally. You get a lot of leeway to basically choose your direction, and you have a whole support team behind you to do it. It’s such a great place to develop and hone your skills as you prepare to get out into the working world, right? Grace: Yeah, it’s definitely a steppingstone environment. You’re expected to do your best and build those skills. There are people to direct you in the right way, rather than just throwing you in with no support. What are some of the other biggest benefits of the program for students? Grace: I think some of the greatest benefits are the connections you get to make. You get to kind of get your name out into the professional world a little bit earlier. That’s a super big benefit. You get to build relationships with other organizations that are beneficial for recommendations and getting to know who and what’s out there. Also, what we already talked about. It’s a safe space to learn. You have a lot of really incredible resources and people there to help you. When you’re just getting started after college, it’s a great experience to be able to talk about and continue to grow from as you look at starting a new profession. Speaking of starting out in a new profession, can you tell us what your current role is? Grace: Yeah! I just got hired as a fourth-grade teacher in Anchorage, Alaska. Oh wow! That’s amazing – congratulations! Grace: Thanks! I will be starting in August. Can you provide a little bit of an overview of what the role will be and the people you’ll be working with? Grace: Yeah! I will be a fourth-grade classroom teacher. I will have about 25 students in my class. I’ll get to work in a Title I school in Anchorage. It’s a Yup’ik immersion school, which means that we have a Yup’ik language program within our school. This is one of the southwestern Alaska native tribes. There will be a more significant population of Yup’ik children in our school, with a large percentage involved in that immersion class. I will be teaching the English side, but quite of few of my students will overlap with the immersion program. That’s so cool, Grace! How do you think this work will be impacting or benefitting the community you’ll be working with? Grace: I mean, most simply, it will benefit the students in the community. I will be able to provide a different perspective. I think I will also be able to really help the students engage in advocacy for the Alaskan native populations in their school and community. Help the students learn how to value other perspectives and backgrounds while advocating for their own. What inspired you to take on this role? Grace: This role is actually just a steppingstone for me. Next fall, my husband and I are moving out to Bethel, Alaska, which is a hub village. That is another steppingstone on our way to being in one of the villages in the Kuskokwim River Delta. Our goal, within the next three years, is to be out teaching students in the villages. This is our move up to Alaska. Then, next year, I’ll start a training program to join a group of teachers to move out to the villages. It's amazing and so impressive that you have such a clear vision of where you want to be and how to get there. Do you think the CDHD was helpful in preparing you for this career path? Grace: My time at the CDHD prepared me in a lot of ways. A lot of the things we learned about disability history and advocacy have greatly influenced me in my teaching career. Not only with the special education side of things, but in general ed as well because I developed a greater skillset in being able to explain advocacy. Especially to students and younger people. It’s also helped me build a lot of professional skills that have helped me get into a career. I like it! Do you think you would have been prepared to step into this role without your time at the CDHD? Grace: Yeah, I think I probably would have but definitely not to the degree that I am. I think I am a lot more confident stepping into it because of my training at the CDHD. I have a greater expanse of knowledge and experiences, which have prepared me far better than I would have been without it. I think I am much more confident because of my time at the CDHD. Grace, it has been fabulous catching up with you. Thank you again for your time. We’re so excited for you to take these next steps in your career and are honored that your time at the Center has been so rewarding – not just personally but professionally as well. Best of luck in your move to Alaska! For more information about the CDHD student trainee program, please visit our website or contact Olivia Lebens at olebens@uidaho.edu.