Student Technology Award Winner
The Infinitec Outstanding Student Technology Achievement Award recognizes students who use assistive technology to overcome challenges and excel in their learning. Infinitec is the technology program of UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago. Its mission is to promote inclusive opportunities for children and adults with disabilities.
Niyah is a kindergarten student and was nominated by Julie Carey, Colleen Kapelinski and Janet Kennedy. Niyah first began using AAC in preschool, and we are so grateful that D123 is so supportive of getting AAC in the hands of our early learners. AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, which is a way of communicating that supplements or replaces speech. People of all ages can use AAC if they have trouble with speech or language.
On Marhc 6, 2025, several staff members attended the 40th annual Infinitec Southwest Dinner & Awards Celebration at Gaelic Park. Niyah was 1 of 12 students who received this award.
Mrs Carey said, "Giving Niyah access to technology to support her communication and language skills has allowed us to have such a better peek into her true personality. The use of technology allows Niyah to participate more readily in learning tasks and activities, but more importantly, it allows her to express her own interests and ideas. Hearing her speaking voice more often is the cherry on top!"
Her classroom teacher, Mrs. Kapelinski said, "Having access to her AAC device has given Niyah the opportunity to more easily participate in everyday classroom activities. She is also able to more easily request her needs and wants while here at school. It’s also how we learned about her love of all things farm animal related. When Niyah kept navigating to the farm animal page to hear the animal sounds, we knew we could use some of our farm animal themed activities to really help engage her in learning tasks at school."
Thank you to our amazing special education department for always advocating for our students.