![\"\"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_7146-300x225.jpg\")
\u201cWe have learned so much in the past year and it was great to be here,\u201d said Apter, a graduating intern from West Hartford, in his speech at the program\u2019s special bridge ceremony. \u201cProject SEARCH has been very productive by teaching us the skills we need to be independently employed. It has felt great to be part of this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thorn of Harwinton added: \u201cWe learned a lot of important skills while working in these departments. We learned about the importance of proper interaction with patients, staff and visitors. Our mentors helped us improve our people skills. The most important skill that our mentors helped us learn was how to advocate for what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alix of Simsbury stressed: \u201cWe began to feel like a part of the team. We started to work more independently and found that we need to ask for help less because we were able to do it on our own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to the program\u2019s ongoing success, Project SEARCH will now be expanding in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of this success could happen without UConn Health as a host,\u201d shared Stephen Morris, executive director of Favarh. \u201cBecause of your success, and those interns over the last years, five new programs are starting in other parts of the state. You truly are a beacon of success. Well done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so proud to be the first Project SEARCH program, and so happy it\u2019s been such a success here at UConn Health,\u201d said Rosie Wright, coordinator of Project SEARCH at UConn Health. \u201cI want to congratulate you. We are so proud of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandy Finnimore, program manager of Favarh shared: \u201cI want to thank all the UConn Health departments for all their help, we could not do it without you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christopher Emerton of Sodexo that powers UConn Health\u2019s food services said: \u201cWe love working with Project SEARCH. We learn so much from the interns. It is so nice to see them grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emerton\u2019s team has hired several Project SEARCH interns over the years.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for this year\u2019s graduating interns?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so exciting,\u201d said Finnimore. \u201cWe work with the interns to help then find a job and we continue to help them. This year\u2019s interns have a number of interviews and we are hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n Dewar is hopeful for employment soon following completion of her UConn Health internship.<\/p>\n \u201cI am going to try for different jobs,\u201d Dewar said. \u201cI really enjoyed getting to know all the people and working in the kitchen at UConn Health.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien also shared how she loved \u201cworking\u201d and \u201call the experiences\u201d that came with her internship at UConn Health.<\/p>\n Alix stressed at the end of her graduation ceremony: \u201cI\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n The special ceremony concluded with inspiring closing remarks to the interns by Favarh\u2019s Morris.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to live in a world where everyone belongs,\u201d said Morris. \u201cThis program demonstrates this for all of us. Thanks for showing us what is possible. Good luck to you and congratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Learn more about UConn Health\u2019s Project SEARCH here<\/a> and Favarh here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Five more interns have graduated from Project SEARCH at UConn Health, an innovative program preparing young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities for careers. Thanks to the internship program’s success at UConn Health, Project SEARCH is now expanding to five new locations across Connecticut. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":150494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2197,1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-150492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-litchfield-county","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 16:32:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/150494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150492"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=150492"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=150492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_7180-225x300.jpg\")