Rise Center holds 49th annual graduation ceremony in Tuscaloosa

The University of Alabama Rise Center rehearsed for its 49th annual graduation the morning of July 25. The ceremony followed that evening. The preschool program was founded on the principle of educating students of varying abilities side-by-side with traditional learners.

"It's mixed emotions. It's bittersweet. Your super-excited the graduates have made all this progress, you're looking at memory books, and you are remembering when they started as an infant. You've put a lot of time, effort, and energy into students and now they are leaving. There is a little bit of sadness," said RISE Director Andi Gillen.

More: When is the first day of school in Tuscaloosa?

Over the school's history, Gillen said they have had more than 700 children graduate from the Rise program. Gillen said the program always strives to serve more children with varying abilities, a term that is being used in place of special needs, than they do traditional learners. The school serves a mix of about 60% variable ability students and 40% traditional learners.

She said the school's guiding principles include acceptance and inclusion. She said children in the program learn that people have differences and that those differences are OK.

" ... You are my friend whether you can walk into a classroom or you enter in a wheelchair. You are my friend whether you have two arms and I don't, or whether you wear glasses (and) I don't. I think the benefit is we are creating a generation that accepts differences and focuses on the abilities of everyone," Gillen said.

The Rise Center accepts students as young as eight weeks old and they can stay until they are 5 years old. After that, children enter the school system in either pre-kindergarten or kindergarten programs.

UA's Rise Center is one of six Rise programs nationwide, but it remains the only one that does not charge tuition to families of varying ability students. They pay for those tuitions through fundraising, funding from the University of Alabama and grants. The Rise Center has to generate $300,000 every year through fundraising to maintain the tuition-free admission for those families.

Rebeccah Payne, a Rise employee who is also a Rise parent, said, "I'm definitely very excited. I feel confident he is ready to move on to big school. It's going to be hard. This is our happy place. I tell people when we come into RISE, Jason is not a child with a disability, he's Jason. I don't have anything to worry about while he is here."

Payne said her son will be attending Faucett-Vestavia Elementary in Northport and they have been supportive and she is confident Jason will do well there, but it will not be the same as having him at Rise. The Rise students put on a show for their graduation and Jason will be Hercules, complete with a muscle body suit.

"He has been obsessed with Hulk. He was Hulk for Halloween. We kept the suit and he wears it around the house at least once a week. He loves to show off his muscles. Ashley, our music therapist, found a role for graduation that fit his personality perfectly," Payne said.

One of the things Gillen finds most rewarding is the Rise graduates who return to work or volunteer.

"We employ adults that are Rise graduates. We have a summer program called Shining Readers where Rise graduates come back and read to our students. There is nothing like watching a graduate walk back in and give back to Rise again," Gillen said.

One of those graduates is Hank Poore, who returned to be the featured speaker for graduation. Poore was at Rise from 2001-2006 and went on to the Tuscaloosa City Schools and graduated from Northridge High.

"It's really exciting," Poore's mother, Kathy Poore, said. "This program meant so much to us when Hank was here. I remember this graduation day like it was yesterday for Hank. The foundation it gave Hank was invaluable to us."

Reach Gary Cosby Jr. at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Rise Center holds 49th annual graduation ceremony in Tuscaloosa