School Days:
Gilroy Unified School District
Abilities Awareness: Teaching Empathy
By Melanie Corona, Public Information Officer, Gilroy Unified School District
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GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
Third Grade students
participating in Abilities
Awareness program in Mr.
Perez’s class at Luigi Aprea
School. Activities including
writing with their non-
dominant hand to mimic
dysgraphia, and answering
riddles using Braille.
program as well. Fourth Grade teacher Heather Beard was
the first teacher at Luigi Aprea to welcome the program to
the school. According to Beard, “Abilities Awareness focuses
on the positives of differences in people and celebrates their
abilities. Because of this program, our students can view
people in a different, more positive light. The more we
expose kids to differences the more they become comfortable
[with] them.”
Miss Judy has offered to bring the Abilities Awareness
program to the greater Gilroy community regardless of grade
level. Her mission to teach kindness toward all people is
deeply personal, inspired by her love for her own son.
“Aleksi has autism and I know his friends sometimes
wonder about some of his behaviors, Rosti said. “I believe edu-
cating people will make them more tolerant and empathetic.”
WINTER 2020
gmhtoday.com
very year at Luigi Aprea Elementary, a small
group of volunteers presents a week-long Abilities
Awareness program to the students in every grade
level at the school. This program enables students
to connect with the experience living with disabilities, both
seen and unseen.
Former Luigi Aprea parent, Judy-Ann Rosti, introduced
the program to Luigi Aprea after discovering it at her
children’s former school district in 2015.
Abilities Awareness teaches empathy, provides
opportunities for students to experience challenges that
their differently-abled classmates may be living with, and
offers suggestions on how to support them as they deal with
their challenges in school settings.
The program curriculum is tailored for each grade level:
Second Graders spend part of their program stringing cereal
onto a piece of yarn while wearing socks on their hands to
experience what someone with fine motor skill challenges
may have. Third Graders practice using American Sign
Language and Braille as ways to communicate in their
classroom, by answering riddles and spelling simple words.
Fifth Graders sit back-to-back to give a partner verbal cues
to draw a design they’ve never seen before. Each lesson is
accompanied by short videos that reinforce the learning.
A lot of research and preparation go into each lesson, with
attention to detail and focus on the program’s over
arching goal.
Miss Judy, as Rosti is affectionately called, no longer
has children of her own at the school, she is passion-
ate about sharing Abilities Awareness with all students.
Her son, Aleksi, has autism, and Judy wants to make sure
that students develop understanding and empathy toward
classmates who may be differently-abled. During her week
on campus she coaches parent volunteers on how to help
present the program, and coordinates with teachers to deter-
mine logistics. She too volunteers, and spends hours on the
playground during lunch giving students the opportunity
to move about using crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs, to
experience how students with limited mobility might move
around campus. She gives each classroom library a book
about children with various disabilities. Like the rest of the
program, the books are grade-level appropriate and encour-
age students to learn more.
For the past two years, the program has received grant
funds from the Santa Clara Firefighters Foundation. The
school’s parent club has also provided tremendous support
financially and in volunteer time.
Luigi Aprea staff and leadership see the value of this