The goal of the College Experience is to profile the talents of not only our current students but also our awesome alumni!  Alumni have an important role in the program as far as serving as mentors to our current students, and we are fortunate that many of them live very close because they choose to attend the Transitions Program.  Staff such as Suzanne Bernier and Pat Laviana continue to work with the alumni to continue the momentum they have established during their time as students at the College Experience.  We celebrate it when the alumni achieve success in internships, jobs, and their residential settings.  Today we are profiling the accomplishments and talents of Alex Corvino who is a very ambitious and active alumnus within Transitions.  He was generous enough to share his reflections and his advice for current students.

 

My name is Alexander Lee Corvino, and I was born on May 27, 1990 in White Plains, NY.  I have one sister.  Her name is Katie.  I have a lot of cousins, aunts, uncles, and two grandmas.  I have two dogs, and their names are Daisy and Cooper.photograph-of-alex-corvino-11-08-2016

Reflections of Alex Corvino
At the College Experience Program, they taught me things very well like apartment life, cooking, finance, and living on your own with other students, too.  We have classes as well and also activities planned, too.  And we did specific day trips.  My favorite day trip was volunteering in the neighborhood of Arbor Hill.
I raked the dust, and I pushed heavy potted plant bowls and dragged it to the other side.  I raked the leaves.  I spread the dirt soil around the plant.  I lifted the tables, and I moved them to the other side at Arbor Hill.  I learned that I like to help out and volunteer, which I like a lot.  I like going to Arbor Hill to clean up and growing plants.  This was a part of our class in the program.
My advice to the current students is to keep exploring.  Keep exploring any trips that they desire.  Working on experiences like being more mature and also being more responsible with things and always be good, be safe, and do everything that you are supposed to do with staff helping.
I am in the Transitions Program now and also I still have my staff like Pat, Suzanne, and my service coordinator, Arianna.  And then my job coach, Lori and now I am working in the Saint Peter’s Hospital cafeteria and I am volunteering at the Saint Peter’s Volunteer Office.  I live in a new apartment with my new roommate now.   And I have enjoyed planning some activities and also the Holidays events, like the party I am going to at Malozzi’s.  Now I work out three times a week – Friday through Sunday. I have been eating more healthy, too and less junky.
Being in Transitions is great, and I am going to be living here on my own forever.  I don’t want to leave.  There is more independence and I like doing things like  working with staff, activities meetings, creative Writing, work, and volunteer.  My parents are going to move up here to be close to me in a few more years.
Below is a poem that I wrote:
Finding Yourself

This is a story all about finding yourself as a person you really are inside of you.
Also find your own heart what makes you YOU, not anyone else.
If it’s possible, take a journey or take a leap of faith .
This is the very first story how to become a hero  that you really are.
It makes you a hero, too. Believing that makes you more stronger then ever.
Just keep doing the things that you really love to do.  Keep exploring yourself.I hope you got this powerful advice.