Blog

Introducing The Bender Leadership Academy Blog

Welcome to our blog! This is your place to learn about what is happening at Bender Leadership Academy, get tips for being a good employee, and grow your leadership and advocacy skills.
Through the coming months, we will share information in our blog about our programs and advocacy, lessons learned from leaders in the disability community and our community’s civil rights journey, messages from our leaders, students, and partners, and tips for success.

The Bender Leadership Academy is committed to bridging the gap for high school students with disabilities through creative programming focused on building competencies and skills valued in the workplace. Our programming focuses on a variety of areas including leadership, anti-bullying, mental fitness, and advocacy. Whether students are learning to speak in public, build a resume, and interview with confidence, or learning strategies for customer service, computer literacy, and digital accessibility testing; they are growing their portfolio of marketable skills.

At the Bender Leadership Academy, we believe that everyone has something to offer in the workplace and we share that message with our students and partners. We know that our students are our strength and our future. Throughout their lives, they will face stigma and they will rise above it by challenging it through advocacy, leadership, and hard work.

For many, stigma is no stranger already. They have faced it through horrific bullying and dismissal of their skills and strengths. Yet, they demonstrate their resilience and their inner strength by continuing to grow despite the neigh-sayers and the prejudiced. Through our blog, we are inviting you to be a part of that continued journey. Together we will explore lessons learned and actions of impact to create a future where disability stigma no longer exists.

Our students will “Lead On!”