Blog / The First Five: Nikki
Nikki’s journey to Shepherds College® started at an expo for parents of adults with special needs at Lon Solomon’s Ministries in Fall’s Church, Virginia, in the spring of 2008. Nikki had recently graduated from high school, and we were struggling with the next steps for her. Denise, Nikki’s mom, heard a speaker talk about a new college being developed at Shepherds Ministries specifically for young adults like Nikki. She came home filled with hope and inspiration but also with dread because the program sounded too good to be true. Over the next few weeks, we reached out to get more information about this new program and the organization responsible for its development. We were thrilled to learn the history of Shepherds Ministries and quite pleased when, as part of the enrollment process, they required Nikki to come out and spend a week in their Respite program*. This would give them a chance to evaluate Nikki and for Nikki to get a chance to become more comfortable with the idea of moving away from home; needless to say, that week was a great success! Nikki enrolled in the inaugural class in Culinary Arts at Shepherds College, and we got the unexpected joy of taking our daughter to college. This is a sentence that we never expected to be able to say.
The time Nikki spent at Shepherds College was an unexpected gift. While Nikki has many physical and cognitive limitations, she is socially very outgoing. She got to be part of a community of young adults with a shared love of learning and a desire to live independently.
Since graduating, we have relocated to Oklahoma. During the years after graduating, Nikki worked at a pre-school and enjoyed horseback riding. Unfortunately, when COVID-19 hit and everything stopped, so did Nikki’s activities. It was a rough couple of years while we hunkered down to weather the pandemic, but since those clouds lifted, Nikki is back to horseback riding and is now volunteering at the local animal shelter several days a week.
Shepherds College allowed Nikki to spread her wings and get the kind of experience we never thought possible.
* The Respite program is no longer a part of the Shepherds College program.
Published in Volume 6, Issue 3 of SOAR Magazine.