So I was kind of hesitant. I didn't want to be away from home. So far, but then my mom kind of convinced me, you know, it's a great opportunity. You'll be there for two weeks and you get to try to program. So I said, "okay, I'll do it."

Joshua Salgado is talking about the Hiram G. Andrew Center. It's a vocational rehabilitation program in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a place where Joshua ended up taking classes for two years. The University of Pittsburgh works with the center to provide specific services. These services help young adults with cognitive disabilities transition from school, to the workforce. One of the services Joshua was provided was cognitive rehabilitation.

They taught us a lot of things to like cope, like tools, we had a toolbox, stop and think. I was pretty nervous and quiet and I had a counselor that told me, you know, you know, speak out more, and then my counselor helped me with confidence. I didn't really have a lot of confidence.

The interventions provided at the center are the result of a long standing relationship with the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, or SHRS the director of the counseling education program at SHRS saw a need to serve clients more holistically.

You know, we've spent 20 years sort of building and refining a model of clinical service delivery.

Under this model. Pitts students who are learning to become counselors gain valuable hands-on experience.

This is something that allows us sort of to go above and beyond what we can you know, the parameters of classroom and embed people in real life situations.

Jamie Koser, is a clinical supervisor for Pitt's counseling program, who places Pitt's students at the center.

It's one of the most, most fun things about this job is we sit the students when they come in day one, and they really, many of them start with zero expertise. And it's a lot of work on my end to kind of do doing a lot of education. And by the end of their time, they're really running the program.

Caitlin Traber was one of those students, she did so well that she was hired to be a full time counselor serving the center's clients.

Being in the counseling program is probably the best opportunity that I've been given or could have been given in my life. The things that they've taught us and in the amount of hands-on experience we got is something that I don't think you get at every school.

This experience makes it possible for Caitlin to help clients like Joshua.

He was definitely quiet and reserved, and definitely lacked confidence. But we could kind of see that he was definitely going to grow.

At the center, Joshua completed two counseling programs, one focusing on academic remediation, and one that helped him develop self-awareness. From there. He attended culinary school.

By the time I got to culinary and I was able to speak for myself and speak out say, "I need help with this because I don't understand it."

My goal is that students will gain more self-awareness, know what they're good at, know that if they're not good at something, that's okay. There's a reasonable accommodation, we can figure out that's going to help them be more successful, and that they are capable of working and being successful and independent in their adult life. Just talking to Josh about how he thinks he's grown just makes me so happy and a little choked up that I had even just a small part of having him, you know, reach his goals. I'm just happy to have been any part of that process for him.