Feasel finds delight in helping others succeed
by JENNIFER HARBIN, associate editor
It can be very intimidating to go
to college when you have a learning disability.
Just imagine what it would be like to
want to get an education, but you have something you feel is
holding you back. Perhaps, you have bipolar disorder, which
makes focusing in the classroom difficult, or you are
hearing impaired and need an interpreter.
Susan Feasél, coordinator of special
services on the Levelland campus, is the woman to go to if
you need help in that area.
“The reason I’m here is so people don’t
have any barriers in their education,” says Feasél, “and so
people have the freedom to learn.”
The goal of Special Services is to help
those in the student population who are facing
discrimination.
Many students at South Plains College
are not aware of all the services that Special Services
provides, or that help is even available to them.
Feasél encourages students with
disabilities to use the help that is available to them.
Special Services helps those with chronic illnesses,
learning disabilities, psychological disabilities, or those
with visual/hearing impairments.
They may offer note-taking services,
additional time on work done in class, additional time on
tests, alternative test locations, priority seating, breaks
in class, assistive devices such as tape/voice-recorders,
spell checkers or dictionaries, and interpreters, if the
appropriate documentation is provided.
“An alternative test location is
monitored by cameras to ensure the utmost reliability and
accuracy when testing,” says Feasél, “so [you] get the same
score you’d get in class.”
Feasél received her bachelor’s degree
in elementary education from Texas Tech University, and
earned her master’s degree in educational counseling from
Texas Tech in 1999.
Before her career at SPC, Feasel held
the same position at Tarrant County Community College in
Fort Worth. She worked in Disability Support Services at
the northeast campus, where she met many diverse people. It
was there that the students she met who have cerebral palsy
taught her to “never judge a book by its cover.”
Family brought Feasél back to Lubbock,
and she applied for the coordinator of special services
position at SPC when it became vacant in the summer of
2008. She arrived on the Levelland campus in January 2009.
Feasél teaches a class called “Learning
Frameworks” (HUDV1100), which is about getting good grades
in college. Her class is great to take for anyone, because
students “learn how to get organized and be motivated to
make great grades.” At the beginning of the semester,
students take a personality test to learn their strengths
and weaknesses for certain careers.
Textbooks can be difficult to read when
you are in college, so they work on reading strategies in
class as well. She suggests buying used books that “are
loved on and marked all over, to stay organized, make a
calendar, plan everything out, and to color code
everything.”
She enjoys working at SPC because
everyone is so friendly, and “she enjoys [teaching her
class] and advising.”
Feasél also lives with Dyslexia, which
has made life more difficult for her. It is probably because
of her direct experience of having this disability that she
is able to help students in the manner that she does. Her
strategy for dealing with a disability is to never give up.
In her spare time, she enjoys
gardening, going on really long hikes, and skiing double
black diamonds in the winter. She also has been
participating in the Iron Man Triathlon put on at SPC for
the faculty. Only two weeks were given to organize teams
and to complete all the miles that trained athletes do in a
day. She has 15 days to complete a 2.4-mile swim, 112 miles
of cycling, and a 26.2-mile walk or run with her team.
Such determination and tenacity are the
values that have helped Feasél live with her disability and
turn it into something that will work for her.
If anyone wishes to inquire about
Special Services, bring documentation from your medical
doctor, high school, psychologist, psychiatrist or any other
appropriate specialist to the office in the Counseling
Center. The student must fill out an application, and an
acceptance letter will be mailed back.
For the Spring 2010 semester, letters
of accommodation for instructors will be ready the week
before classes start.
Feasél can be contacted at (806)
716-2529, or emailed at sfeasel@southplainscollege.edu.
