Tiffany (Rentner) Gabrys appreciates the skills she learned as a Redbird student-athlete. Those skills prepared Gabrys for a career as a speech language pathologist and helped her manage the last two months as the speech and language therapy she provides has moved out of the classroom and online.
"It was so helpful in having the resources we had as a student-athlete. Teaching time management and setting those deadlines was crucial and really laid the groundwork. Because things are going to change on a dime, things are going to happen and if you don't prepare for what you are doing academically – or now with my job, you may not get things done," said Gabrys. "I still have reports that I'm writing, and I still have students that need eligibility meetings. Whether we are in school or not, these things need to get taken care of, and I really think that being a student-athlete and learning those time management skills was so critical."
Gabrys provides speech and language therapy in the special education department for students in kindergarten through eighth grade in the same school district she attended as a child. She provides most of the therapy for students who use assistive technology in the district. Assistive technology is any device, software, or equipment that helps people work around their challenges.
"About half of my case load is verbal and can use their voice to communicate and the other half is nonverbal so they either use assistive technology to assist the voice they have or in place of their natural voice," noted Gabrys.
Despite some of the challenges faced by other districts with moving students online, Gabrys said the move has been almost seamless for her students. She credits Marcia Dennis, a former Illinois State University Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders faculty member, with stressing the importance of not getting too stuck to one type of assistive technology because everything changes so quickly with those devices. Gabrys said this thought process has been a blessing with all the changes due to COVID-19 taking place.
"You are constantly looking for new things and different outlets your kids can use, and I think that actually it has been a blessing because we had access to so many different programs that were computer based for our students already. Moving into the online format, we were able to do Google Chats and Zoom calls with the parents to set everything up, and it flowed even though we are missing the person to person interactions," said Gabrys.
"My district has been wonderful. Anything the students need, if they use different switches, if they need adaptive toys, my special education director said put in the order, and we'll get it to the family."
"Our teachers are running group sessions once a week, so I hop in and usually the social workers and occupational therapists. I will push out a group activity and an individual assignment to some of my kids. For some of my students it's very difficult to sit in front of a computer to do activities that way so the parents have said they would rather do it on their own with them. It's a lot of touching base with the parents and finding out what works best for them instead of always a Zoom call. I'm taking it week-by-week as their needs change, times change; we've been very flexible."
Additionally, Gabrys has had to adjust to working from home herself. She says, "It's been a little bit of a circus" trying to coordinate therapy while caring for her 2 ½ year old daughter at home and coordinating work schedules with her firefighter husband. It has given her some insight into what the parents of her students are going through.
"It has humbled me a lot. My daughter takes music classes over the computer. It took her four music classes to even realize that 'hey, this is my same music class'. She was running all over the house," Gabrys laughed. "I do a lot of things when she's napping, when she goes to bed at night. It's definitely flipped everything upside down, but it's helped me to be more patient with my families."
Even with all the changes and uncertainty COVID-19 brings, Gabrys shared a positive story of a first-grade student whose life has been changed immeasurable by the services Gabrys has provided remotely during the pandemic.
"I have a student who does not communicate verbally, and we've been trying different equipment with her. We were kind of unsure how to proceed because she was in the middle of a communication device trial," said Gabrys. "She only uses her eyes to control a screen so essentially her eyes are a mouse and she has to stare at the screen at different spots for a certain amount of time and it activates that button and you can communicate back and forth with her."
Once remote learning was put into effect, Gabrys has been meeting remotely twice a week with the student and was able to get the eye gaze technology set up at the student's home after a lengthy Zoom call with the parent.
"You could see how excited this student was. She was going up and down and bouncing in her seat. So happy," said Gabrys. "When you think about a student who is not able to have a voice for herself and then moves to a point where she will have a voice for herself, regardless of all this going on, it is amazing."
Looking for the positives in difficult situations and "stepping back" is key to any challenge shared Gabrys. She offered some advice for recent Redbird graduates that missed out on end of the year traditions such as commencement ceremonies and senior student-athlete recognitions, although Gabrys admits her heart would be broken into a million pieces.
"I'd say think about the bigger picture and your health and safety. But saying that is just a band-aid. More importantly, even though this happened, this doesn't take away from the success that you had and the memories you made.
At the end of the day, being a student-athlete is so important, and it was the best experience and those years are what prepared me for my job. They've had a wonderful athletic career and an amazing education, so I know moving forward regardless of what happens with this situation that they're ready for a job. They're ready to succeed in life."
The RB4L Spotlight is highlighting former student-athletes who have been impacted by COVID-19. If you'd like to be featured in the RB4L Spotlight and share your story, email rb4l@ilstu.edu.
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
