My History of the Excel Program

Have you ever felt like you were not going to be able to go to college? That’s what I felt like at some points in my early life. During my childhood, I was behind on some parts of education as I was homeschooled and later went to a small private school. I felt like I was only able to learn at my own pace. Later on, in my teen years, I ended up starting at a public high school where I started hearing from some people about college programs for students that had intellectual disability. With only a year left before graduating high school, I began looking into and touring a couple of colleges around metro Atlanta. One of the colleges I found the most interesting was Georgia Tech, despite the fact that my parents and a couple of extended family members were University of Georgia graduates. Georgia Tech had some campus amenities that really amazed me, along with the fact that it has so much around it being in Midtown Atlanta. A couple of years prior, the Excel Program was established at Georgia Tech and was looking to grow.

After having successful interviews with a couple of colleges and getting accepted, the Georgia Tech Excel Program was my choice of where to have a college experience. I graduated high school in May of 2017, just before my twentieth birthday. In August of that year, I moved into a high-rise apartment in Midtown, next door to the Georgia Tech campus. During my first year, I spent my time exploring types of careers I would like, experienced living with roommates, took Excel classes on topics that I enjoy, went on some social outings, and explored campus clubs where I got to meet and get to know people. During the last half of my first year, I got my first on-campus internship as a tour guide around Georgia Tech’s campus. I achieved this internship with my amazing skills on maps, directions to show people around who were looking to come to Georgia Tech, and researching about the campus with its history and facts. I decided to continue the internship the following semester due to me and everyone around me enjoying the tours. The other Georgia Tech tour guide students were really nice to me, and the Georgia Tech topics we discussed were interesting.

After my successful first year, I returned for my second year where I was having even more success. I began hosting a lot more social events of my own, such as having dinner outings and watching movies with my group of friends. During the first semester, I was successfully doing at least two Georgia Tech tours a week and improving on my tour guide knowledge, and it led me to look into what other internships I could do off of campus. My second year also had me in a very large American history inclusive class, something that I would have been scared about being a part of in high school. In the American history class, we learned and went in depth with things in history after the year 1877. Later in the following half of my year, I tried a couple more unique inclusive classes such as a civil rights class and one about the development of cities, called History of Urban Form. Later on, I finally got my first off-campus internship as an airport volunteer to help direct guests where to go in the terminal. It was nice but was also a challenge when trying to be trained on how to work, and it also led me to help out with a couple of things at the then newly renovated Georgia Tech Library. After my second year, I was at the halfway point where I got the first of the two certificates that Excel provides, which was for academic enrichment, social fluency, and career explorations. After this, I felt like I completed a section in my college experience and was ready to grow for the following year.

I began my third year with taking inclusive classes and Excel classes about things that are useful for my adult life and future jobs, such as an organizational behavior business class, a financial literacy class, and the PEERS curriculum. Most notable for my third year was that I got the opportunity for an internship with the City of Atlanta. I went to the city hall and I would do something I enjoy, which was with maps on special software technology called geographic information systems. I learned how to use the software, despite that it was sometimes challenging. I worked through the challenge after doing some tutorials and my supervisors and coworkers showed me what I could do. After that special experience, I decided for the next semester to try another career field that was interesting to me, which was working with travel and hospitality at a hotel. I got an internship at one of Georgia Tech’s nearby hotels, a Hampton Inn, where I got to help customers or assist with sorting and folding laundry. Things were going really well for me in the Excel Program, but something would cause a little downfall with the ending of my third year. That was the Covid-19 pandemic, which in March of 2020 shut down tons of places and canceled a lot of planned social events. Despite the sudden change, I would find ways that I can still prepare me for my final year in Excel.

I go into my fourth year and final year of Excel with some things more different than ever. Despite this, I worked hard to keep myself flexible. I returned to having my internship with the Hampton Inn after the people there wished to have me back. I also began learning about lots of things to help for postcollege time, as well as where I would like to have future jobs. For my final semester, I plan on finishing my required Excel classes and getting a job that I can have for after I graduate. I’m currently looking into having a job in Alpharetta where I’m from, which would either be at the YMCA front desk in Alpharetta or a hotel.

It’s been an amazing opportunity for me to join the Excel Program. I’m really proud that I got a full college experience and learned so much along the way. I would like to thank all of the people who helped and supported me in the Excel Program and got me to where I needed to be.