The Start of Something Great: Creating new opportunities for young adults with Down syndrome one internship at a time.

Emily posing with her co-presenters and Thursday night program leaders (from the right): Sydney W., Amanda P., Paulina P., Emily K., Jenny P., and Lisa L.

This year GiGi’s Playhouse Thursday night programs have been extremely fortunate to get a programs intern, Emily Kwidzinski. As part of her internship, Emily has been helping program leaders members at GiGi’s with the full Thursday night programming: Teen Tastic, GetFit, Cooking Club, and Dance!

Emily has been attending GiGi’s as a participant since she was 12 years old and has been a consistent attendee of the Thursday night programs since their initial implementation in 2017. As such, Emily has not only demonstrated strong commitment and familiarity with Chicago Playhouse, but also great knowledge of the individual programs and the program process. In addition to being eager to help the group leaders and the participants, Emily was determined to take her involvement at GiGi’s Playhouse to the next level.

“Hard work and focus is very important.” -Emily Kwidzinski

In her internship, Emily’s key responsibilities included greeting group participants, supporting the check-in process and monitoring sign-ins, taking pictures, helping group leaders and volunteers, and helping group participants. As part of her responsibilities and one of the biggest highlights of Emily’s internship, this year, was a visit to Costco to pick up supplies for Cooking Club. During the Costco trip, it was quickly learned that Emily was hands down the best Costco shopper any of us have ever met and she swiftly helped us navigate busy isles and pick out the necessary supplies for the program.

What started out as a small step for GiGi’s Playhouse toward creating new opportunities for young adults with Down syndrome, Emily’s internship quickly turned out to be something much bigger. This fall, Thursday night program leaders and Emily were invited to present on Emily’s role at GiGi’s at two occupational therapy conferences:

• The 6th International Institute on Kielhofner’s Model of Human Occupation hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
• The Annual Illinois Occupational Therapy Association State conference hosted by the Illinois Occupational Therapy Association, Tinley Park, IL

Presentation ready!

Here, Emily had an opportunity to further her leadership and public speaking skills as she worked with the group leaders to develop her presentation slides and talking points. She was able to effectively communicate her unique role and contributions to the Chicago Playhouse to a large body of licensed occupational therapy practitioners. The feedback from the audience was incredible, and many thanked Emily for inspiring them to do more in creating new internship and work opportunities for young adults with developmental disabilities in the community.

Thank you Emily for all you do and helping us start something new and great at our Playhouse this year! GiGi’s Playhouse Chicago would not be the same without you!