New Social Worker at the College Experience

The College Experience is pleased to welcome Allison Fuller to our team as a full-time social worker for the students.

We are fully aware that our students come to the program with a great deal of enthusiasm and a plethora of obstacles. They must navigate a schedule of household chores, reporting to classes while keeping up with a syllabus, housemate conflicts, and romantic tribulations. For some this is also their first extended period of time away from loved ones. This is essentially a perfect storm of transitions with new challenges occurring throughout their two years at this innovative program. Therefore, we are very excited that Allison Fuller has come aboard to work with our talented students on these challenges that come with being a college student.

Allison has had an impressive career within the Human Service field while starting her journey at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY where she finished her undergraduate studies in 2000. She pursued her Masters Degree at the University of Albany and earned it by 2001 with the 12-month advanced standing program. Her first job after having earned her Masters was working with individuals struggling with serious and ongoing mental illness in Albany. It was her experience that the people who performed the best in job settings and the community were those who regularly took their medications even when they started to feel a lot better. And she has found the best way to reach someone is through “understanding the person’s goal for a quality of life. Bringing the conversation back to that topic sometimes yields greater adherence to a medical plan. But not always.”

After this intense job placement, Allison had the chance to take time for herself to travel around the country visiting as many national parks as she could fit into an 8-week period. Her favorite part of this personal adventure were the arches at a National Park in Utah.

Allison started with Living Resources, Inc. in June 2006 and worked within the clinical department helping individuals within all programs in the agency including the College Experience. In October 2012, Allison even had the opportunity to travel to Bejjing, China with our CEO, Fred Erlich and Jeffrey Hallenbeck from the Clinical Department to teach and work with staff serving individuals with autism. She ended up taking a new position outside the agency in 2016 to pursue different avenues of social work that would strengthen her impact. This refusal to rest on her laurels has led her back to our agency to continue developing her skills. In Allison’s own words, “I am more than excited to be back working for an amazing company and specifically with a program filled with energy and growth.”

When asked her opinions about the College Experience, this is what Allison had to say:

I think the College Experience is a very unique and exciting program that offers opportunities to people who may not have considered college as part of their future. It is not only providing academic learning but also the opportunity to improve social skills, daily living skills, and community integration. The staff have a unique approach toward appreciating each person’s strengths and talents and utilizes them to help the students meet all of their goals while they are in the program. And the community at the College of Saint Rose has been wonderfully supportive and encouraging to all of the students.

Some of Allison’s hobbies include photography and traveling whenever possible. Allison is also married with two small children whose social activities fill up much of her free time. She has a daughter who is seven and a son who is five. Her husband is in the middle of his final weeks as a UPS brown truck driver and will soon begin his next career as a full-time student at the Samaritan School of Nursing in Troy, NY.

We have no doubt that Allison will make a valuable contribution to the lives of our students and wish her all the success in the world!