Did someone just turn in the test? How can she already be done?
It looks nice outside.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Who is that tapping their pencil?
What time is it? OMG, I have to get going!
Look at her shake her foot. She is really shaking her foot.
Come on! Focus on the test. I need to do well
When a student struggles with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), taking a test in a classroom can be difficult as every sound is amplified, movement is magnified, and pressure is escalated.
Kimberly Tedd Handler ’99 understands the distractions and the stakes. As a first-year student at Lehigh, her GPA wasn’t great, and she had to drop a class. That’s when her mom took her to a physician, who diagnosed her with ADHD and an auditory processing disorder.
“It explains why my professors sounded like the teacher in the Peanuts comics,” she says. She then makes the classic noise: Mwah wah wah.
This wasn’t new for her. Her mother saw that she was struggling in high school and went to speak with the guidance counselor. Handler was smart and hard-working, but her grades didn’t reflect it.
When she toured Lehigh as a high school sophomore, she fell in love.
“This is where I had to go,” she says. But a meeting with an admissions counselor made clear that she wasn’t the university’s ideal student. Her grades and PSAT score were off the mark.
“The counselor gave me great advice if I really wanted to attend, so I stayed in contact, writing letters and notes, and applied early.”
She was accepted. Getting in was one thing, but staying in was another.
After her diagnosis, she connected with Cheryl Ashcroft, director of disability support services (DSS) on campus (now retired). At that point in time, the number of students like Handler who had a diagnosis — and accepted it— was small. But the services and support she received from the office were tremendous.
“I received accommodations I needed and began to blossom as a student,” she says.
This is a common story for Maria Zullo, the current director at DSS.
“We want students to live, learn, and lead at Lehigh,” she says. “So our office works to alleviate or ameliorate any long-term or temporary need a student might have whether in academics, housing, diet, or transportation.”
The 35 students from back in Handler’s days now number over 500. More than 400 of those require academic accommodations. Many need initial support in the transition from high school to college. Zullo and her small staff liaise with nearly every other office on campus.
“Our goal is to help students develop into self-advocates,” she says.
This happens in a number of ways, including one-on-one sessions, coaching, and peer mentorship.
That latter program began under Ashcroft with help from Handler and her friend Josh Kelin ’99. The trio held planning meetings in 1996. By the fall of 1997, they launched the peer mentoring program.
“The premise then was pairing an upperclassman with a first-year student in order to help the transition to Lehigh, learning the tips and tricks needed to thrive,” says Handler.
DSS then operated the program out of the University Center. Today the program, and all of DSS programs, are becoming part of bLUeprint, an umbrella program built around five core principles that integrates services from across campus that will enhance student development.
“We want to give students the skills, strategies, and behaviors to achieve their full success,” says Zullo. “When they best understand themselves and their needs, they can better advocate for themselves and others to reach their goals.”
The Peer Mentor program grew into something very robust and served as a model from many other institutions … until COVID-19 slowed its advancements. The pandemic shifted needs to the online environment and altered the campus landscape. When the new normal began, DSS focused its resources on its primary charge of meeting federal accommodation requirements, but the mentorship program is becoming active again as it puts an executive board in place, recruits student mentors, and develops launching plans for the fall.
Handler didn’t know that her work in this area was still active until she recently joined an admissions tour on campus with her daughter.
“I was wowed that it was still in place and had a wider array of options for students in need,” she says. Handler met with Zullo and was inspired to do more.
That’s when she and her husband, Andrew Handler ’98, made a gift to support the work at DSS. She is not alone.
Michelle Grossman Coleman ’89 and her husband, Tom, met with Zullo and saw an opportunity to make an impact for students who could benefit from additional support at a crucial moment in their lives.
“As students transition from high school and home lives to independence at college, the adjustment for some can be overwhelming, especially if they have a neurodiversity issue like dyslexia, ADHD, or autism,” she says. “Now is when students need access to services so they can understand their differences, communicate those differences, and receive accommodations.”
The self-confidence students can gain through success is dramatic. Coleman knows based on stories from her daughter, Hannah Coleman ’22, who served on the executive board and as a peer mentor at DSS.
“Having an advocate on campus is important — a person who understands what a student is experiencing and models what success looks like as an athlete, artist, and scholar,” Coleman says.
These gifts make a huge difference.
“Gifts allow us to go above and beyond,” says Zullo. “Particularly, those funds make it possible for me to have a graduate assistant in the office and offer her incredible support to students and staff.”
“I am not sure I would have graduated without the support of DSS,” says Handler. “My whole life trajectory would have been different. I owe my academic success to Lehigh.”