Serendipity sparks a life-changing program

The Centre for Disability Studies (CDS), a not-for-profit organisation affiliated with the School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, is transforming social inclusion opportunities. Their award-winning program, Uni 2 Beyond (U2B), offers people with intellectual disabilities the chance to immerse themselves in university life — empowering them with new skills, relationships and life-long learning to achieve their dreams.

When discussing the JACE Foundation's partnership with the U2B program, the word "serendipity" often comes up. This remarkable program, which provides people with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to attend university classes over two years, had recently halted due to funding shortages. Everything changed when the JACE Foundation's founder, who wishes to remain anonymous, learned about the program and felt an instant connection. It quickly became a passion project, perfectly aligning with the foundation's core values.  

“I said, ‘well, that's right up my alley of what JACE would support and love to support’,” they say.

The reason why is deeply personal and has driven the JACE Foundation's choice of causes to support. 

“My daughter is autistic. She was diagnosed when she was two,” the founder says. “And recently her school said she was presenting more with intellectual disabilities and wouldn’t be able to access the standard high school program. She is now 13 and we’ve moved her to a high school where they handle intellectual disabilities and have a modified course for them throughout school.”

This prompted the founder of the JACE Foundation to consider life for their daughter after school. What kind of programs were available for students with intellectual disabilities who wished to attend university? Surprisingly, there were very few. 

“The [Uni 2 Beyond] program is one of only two programs like it in Australia though there are more internationally,” says Mary-Ann O'Donovan, Associate Professor of Disability Studies and CEO of the CDS, who is based in the Susan Wakil Health Building at the University of Sydney.

For Benny Dominish who was part of the program from 2018 to 2020, Uni 2 Beyond  paved the way to transform his passion into a career where he now enhances inclusion opportunities for others. “This program will change your life dramatically,” he says. He describes his time in the program as “simply amazing.”

“I honestly I enjoyed it more than anything else, because I got to experience what it's like to actually be a uni student, to go to classes, do lectures and things of that nature.”

Dominish is now a social inclusion officer at the CDS. A role that gives him immense joy. 

“Working here is just like, for me, the unexpected icing on the cake.”  

“What the program demonstrates, and what all other programs around the world demonstrate, is that people with intellectual disability have potential, they have capacity, desire and ambition and can achieve great things with the right structure, support and pathway. But we have to create the pathway. It's not happening naturally.”

As Associate Professor O’Donovan explains, a lot of the time this pathway doesn’t exist because of the testing and examination criteria to get into university from high school, and then the rigours of assessments to complete university education.

As the Uni 2 Beyond program doesn't result in formal qualifications, participating in tests and assessments is optional. However, there are students who choose to take them. One such student, Bruce Eric O’Brien, participated in the program in 2021 and 2022. O’Brien, who dreamed of becoming a maths teacher while in school, enrolled in both Maths and German classes at the University, and completed assessments for German. Not surprisingly, German became his favourite subject during his time in the program.

The learning component is just one aspect, another vital part of the program is the social side. 

“One of the key things with the program is social connection,” Associate Professor O’Donovan says. “So, we know people build their social connections in university, and that can then be your network for later on in life.” 

The social aspect of university life stood out to Ellie Taylor, another U2B student, who mentions the lunches on campus as well as the discussions in class related to what they were learning. “We would get into groups and talk about the subjects,” she says. “I wanted to experience uni, and do it independently with some help and support.”  

And highlighting U2B’s achievements in the arts, U2B graduate, Bridget Kelly, advanced her visual arts education and exhibits in multiple Sydney galleries, securing a permanent fixture in Sydney’s inner-west. The benefits of the program are clear and are not exclusive to the students who participate in it but benefit society at large. As Associate Professor O’Donovan mentions, “the students benefit, but the teaching staff benefits, the rest of the student population benefits, the whole community benefits - there's so much of a ripple effect.”

And to the founder of the JACE Foundation, who stepped in at just the right moment, Dominish has one last thing to say: “Thank you, because without their help, this wouldn't be happening. And I probably wouldn't be able to have a job in such a beautiful place like this.”

Written by Saman Shad for the donor publication. Photography by Stefanie Zingsheim.