Alyssa Ryan is a lifelong Philadelphia resident who’s been at the Mastery Charter Lenfest School for 14 years as a special ed teacher and case manager. She felt her students with intellectual disabilities and autism needed help transitioning to what comes next after school, so she developed a transition program.

“Really focusing on developing vocational and independent living skills to prepare them for that next step and that transition, if you will, into adulthood or independence, and whatever that looks like for them,” she explained.

Ryan said the biggest misconception about people who are differently abled is that they can’t do things independently.