People You Should Know

People You Should Know

Interview by Dr. Stuart Wittenstein

Name: Dr. Sandy Ruconich

Organization: Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind

Contact Information:

Email:

Classroom: Evergreen Junior High, 3401 South 2000 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84109

Work phone: 801-483-1769

Home phone: 801-461-0265

Please explain what you do:

I operate a resource room for junior high-age students who are visually impaired. Although I work for the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, my classroom is housed in a junior high. This enables me to do some mainstreaming while teaching other classes self-contained. Initially, my aide or I generally accompany the students to mainstreamed classes, but we try to fade out as the student increases in skill and comfort level. The ultimate goal is to prepare students for what they’ll do next. Often this means a return to public school; sometimes, in the case of a student functioning at a lower academic level whose objective is purely vocational, we send him out with a job coach to work a few hours each day. Whatever the next step, we do our best to maximize skills (academic, social, and otherwise) and independence.

How did your career begin? Why did you choose the career that you did?

I had a lot of trouble figuring out what I was going to be when I grew up, so I have degrees in different areas. I hold Bachelor’s degrees in music and English and Master’s and doctoral degrees in special education; the area of the visually impaired. I got into special ed. because I took an introductory special ed. class during my last year of undergraduate work and heard there were fellowships available for special ed. graduate study. As a congenitally blind person, I figured I already had some expertise and could just add to what I already knew. Within the field I’ve changed careers several times, having taught music, braille, English, Optacon (a 1970’s reading device allowing braille readers to access print by feeling vibrating print letters); serving as Director of Educational Technology and Technology Coordinator; teaching in the area of visual impairment at universities; and being a resource teacher. Can you tell I still haven’t grown up yet?

What 2 or 3 accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction?

Writing and arranging the rules generated by the Computer Code Committee of which I was a member into the form we use, almost unchanged, today; being part of the effort which resulted in DVIQ’s availability in braille; helping a student learn to be resourceful and/or to persevere despite initial failure

What is the most important lessons you have learned from your work?

It is as vital to educate the heart as it is to open and expand the mind. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” must be constantly modeled for these students, who often have experienced little, if any, such modeling in other settings. Show them through the classroom environment you create that while each student is important as an individual, students and adults in the classroom are all part of a team which helps each other. Model interdependence—“we,” not “I.” Find ways for them to give; as adults, they will need help many times, but they can also find ways to help others—sometimes those who helped them, sometimes someone else. Those who genuinely care about and serve others find life much more fulfilling and rewarding.

Who has been your mentor or greatest inspiration throughout your career? I’ve been privileged to know many wonderful people who have taught me invaluable things: Bill Davis, now-retired Media Coordinator at the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped (where I first taught); Everett “Butch” Hill, the legendary O&M pioneer who was a member of my doctoral committee; Tim Cranmer and Emerson Foulke, who helped me through the internship and dissertation phases of my doctorate; Will Evans, former superintendent of the Kentucky School for the Blind (my boss) and now a member of the American Printing House for the Blind staff; Dean Tuttle, Kay Ferrell, and Bill Muir at the University of Northern Colorado; and Melanie Austin, program director for the Utah School for the Blind central division (my current boss).

What do you think it takes to be successful in our field?

Sensitivity to what others (teachers, administrators, students) think is important and developing positive relationships with everyone, flexibility (of method, use of time, etc.), intelligent risk-taking which allows love and faith to triumph over fear, and a willingness to constantly evaluate and learn from both your successes and your failures.

How would a friend, colleague, or professor describe you?

I HOPE others would see me as kind, caring, willing to go the extra mile to do a project right or to help a student, maintaining high expectations of myself and everyone else while recognizing that “just manageable levels of difficulty” vary with the individual, problem-solving with creativity and resourcefulness (being unafraid to think “outside the box”), continuously learning and growing, sensitive and artistic.

What are your interests outside of work? What do you do with your time off? My extracurricular activities center around music. I take voice lessons, am a church organist, compose and arrange pieces for church choirs (some have been published; right now I’m working to get more written down so they CAN be published). I also teach or co-teach VI classes for the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Utah, and I love to read.

What is your favorite book? What are you reading now?

Currently I’m reading Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy. The books I read most frequently are the scriptures: the Bible and the Book of Mormon, among others.

If you could do so, how would you plan your career differently?

I’d have learned earlier to concentrate less on what appears glamorous or high-status and focus more on what I’m good at.

What words of wisdom would you like to share with the members of DVI?

Be unafraid to take intelligent risks; to leave your comfort zone. You’ll grow regardless of the outcome.

What challenges do you see before us?

Keeping technology accessible; doing what is truly best for each student in terms of both placement and programs; working together as a field, not only in terms of blindness organizations but also in terms of getting special ed. and rehab. personnel to find common ground instead of blaming each other

What’s next for you?

My continuing challenge and need is to keep learning and growing: to be a more complete, mature person with every passing year.