A special place for special needs

March 30, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

CORTLAND

A few months ago, Jenna DePizzo proudly wore a crown, but she will be the first to tell you that her crowning achievement is much more than skin deep.

“I’m a huge proponent of special-needs inclusion,” the 21-year-old Cortland woman said, referring to her prized goal of teaching in an all-inclusive classroom in which children with and without challenges more freely interact with and learn from one another.

DePizzo also knows a bit about inclusion. She is included in the list of regional beauty-pageant winners after having been crowned Miss North Central Ohio in a Jan. 25 event in Mansfield. As a result, she also will compete for the Miss Ohio title in June in that city.

Her victory also was brought about by her vocal rendition of “Happy Days are Here Again,” the popular 1929 Jack Yellen song.

Beyond the usual glamor that the accomplishment inevitably brings, being in such pageants is a great way to win scholarship funds, DePizzo explained recently at her father’s Staples office supply store in Hermitage, Pa. By her estimate, she has earned about $8,000 in scholarship money.

DePizzo, a Slippery Rock University senior majoring in early childhood and special education, has wasted no time delving into her love of working with children.

She also is a student teacher who works with youngsters in kindergarten through grade five at Musser Elementary School in Sharon, Pa.

Neither beauty contests nor helping children is new to her, though. When DePizzo was 14 or 15, she competed in such events, including at the Trumbull County Fair. Later, she was honored by being named Miss Cortland.

In addition to making her schooling easier, such competitions have given her a platform by which to give back to the community. She does so largely by advocating for and speaking on behalf of the importance of inclusive education and breaking down barriers that many youngsters with challenges face, DePizzo noted.

“I’m a huge fan of teachers who change their curriculums to go against the idea of one size fits all,” she added.

About three years ago, DePizzo began a program called Encourage Minds to Believe Real Acceptance Comes with an Embrace (EMBRACE), in which she speaks to general-education classes throughout Ohio and part of western Pennsylvania on the value of accepting those with special needs and including them as peers and friends. Her message has reached about 1,500 students, DePizzo continued.

Her love for children began to blossom when, as a 9-year-old 4-H member, she entered a mentorship program to assist other children. That led to DePizzo’s baby-sitting and tutoring youngsters as well as assisting her mother, Laura DePizzo, a teacher at Lakeview Elementary School in Cortland, she said.

More recently, she just returned from an eight-day trip to Costa Rica that Slippery Rock University’s special-education department had sponsored. She and 12 other students visited classrooms in that country to better understand its education model, DePizzo said, adding that she also consulted with one of the country’s top special-education experts.

So, what does this twentysomething do when she’s not going at full throttle to further achieve regarding her deepest passion? She might be working four hours a week at SRU’s children’s library, reading, listening to her favorite forms of music or making her own music.

“I like to pretend I can dance to it,” DePizzo said about her musical choices, “but I’d better stick to singing.”