By Tatum Mitchell | Opinion Editor
Special Olympics: Unified at Baylor is aiming to connect Baylor students and athletes to develop a more accepting and accessible community. The organization hopes to promote an inclusive society for people with intellectual and development disabilities.
San Mateo, Calif., junior Jenna Tobin, Special Olympics Unified president, said there are factors in society that separate most students from the intellectual and development disabilities community, or the IDD community. She said she wants to encourage people to work past those barriers and immerse themselves.
“They’re often neglected or, unfortunately, forgotten about. It’s really important to make the effort to understand the IDD community, to understand what we are lacking to provide for the IDD community,” Tobin said. “A little bit of your time goes a long way.”
With 35 active members, Baylor’s Special Olympics Unified organizes events on campus with fraternities and athletics, connects volunteers to practices with Special Olympics Texas and The Incredibles and hosts weekly virtual hangouts.
Ripon, Calif., junior Gianna Brocchini, Baylor Athletics coordinator, said it’s important to “create community in a way that makes them feel included because they should be, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t.”
Historical treatment and institutionalization of the IDD community has led people with IDD to be shut out from the current healthcare system, business world and education, Tobin said.
“A lot of businesses are not well equipped to handle having employees with IDD, and a lot of the healthcare system is not up to date in terms of how to interact with a patient with IDD or how to make the hospital the most accessible place to everyone,” Tobin said. “I want people to know that our society has to catch up, and it’s our generation’s [job] to work toward catching up in anything you’re going into.”
After high school, Tobin said there are not as many programs available to adults with IDD, and Special Olympics Unified is a way to facilitate community among them.
Austin senior Abigayle Hoeft, treasurer of Special Olympics Unified, said when she came to Baylor, the first club she looked for at Late Night was Special Olympics Unified. She said she wanted to be a club officer after the first meeting, and one reason for that was because she liked the community.
“It’s really like a big family when you start to get to know the athletes and all of the family members they have, and you just become a part of that group. They all really care about each other and they’re really supportive,” Hoeft said. “It’s a really nice environment to be in.”
Making new connections is a significant part of Special Olympics Unified — Brocchini and Tobin also said making new friends and being a part of the organization’s positive environment, has been the best part of getting involved.
Before joining the organization, Brocchini said she had experience with Special Olympics Unified, but that it’s not necessary in order to join.
“Now I talk to the athletes every single day and don’t think twice about it,” Brocchini said. “It’s just making a friend. We’re all the same.”
If any student is interested in being a part of Special Olympics Unified but may be hesitant to join, Brocchini, Hoeft and Tobin said being unsure or having a lack of experience is OK.
“It’s OK to be uncomfortable. That’s one of the things that Special Olympics is about. [Breaking] those barriers that have been built up over time with the way society functions, the way the school system works by separating gen ed and special ed,” Tobin said. “A big part of special olympics is just facing that discomfort head on and realizing that the athletes, they’re just people too.”
