Tennessee Rehabilitation Center Graduates Overcome Obstacles and Strive for Sucess
More than 75 TRC students will graduate with new skill sets preparing them for the workforce
NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Rehabilitation Center (TRC) in Smyrna, Tenn., will honor more than 75 graduates – students whose disabilities include traumatic brain injury, intellectual impairments and blindness. Graduates have chosen specific occupational paths and put forth much hard work and effort to become more self-sufficient and career ready. Through classroom and hands-on training that ranges from auto maintenance to business education and from food service to building maintenance, the graduates have learned skills to prepare them for success in the workforce. The commencement program will be held on Friday, December 14, 2012.
Brett Martin, former TRC student will deliver the commencement address. A student speaker, Kevin Bishop will share the podium during the graduation program which begins at 10 a.m. in the center’s gymnasium.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment for the students at TRC,” said Assistant Commissioner of Rehabilitation Services Cherrell Campbell-Street. “These programs are changing lives every day and now these new graduates can look forward to a brighter future because of the skills they have gained as a result of their hard work and dedication.”
The Tennessee Rehabilitation Center is a state-operated comprehensive rehabilitation facility and is one of eight such centers in the nation. TRC provided vocational rehabilitation services to nearly 1100 students in FY 2012 and has an employment rate of 94% since 2011. Since opening its doors in 1977, the TRC has provided life and job skills training to more than 32,000 Tennesseans living with disabilities.
Services are provided on campus and the majority of students live in residential units on the campus, while receiving services. The TRC is located at 460 9th Ave. in Smyrna, just east of the Smyrna Airport near Sam Ridley Parkway. For more information on the center, please visit http://tn.gov/humanserv/rehab/trc.html or call (615) 459-6811.
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