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Deaf, hearing-impaired students learning job and life skills at Port St. Lucie pizza shop : St. Lucie County : TCPalm
Teenagers making pizza boxes on a couple of tables outside Panariello’s Pizza and Pastry Shop twice a week aren’t just folding cardboard carefully into boxes.
They’re creating a piece of their future.
The teens are participating in a community-based instruction program for the deaf and hearing impaired, learning job and life skills at a business under the supervision of Mattie Bozzo, a veteran teacher of the hearing impaired at Oak Hammock K-8 School.
Panariello’s is the only business where students from the Oak Hammock program are learning job and employee skills and concepts.
Bozzo is one of three teachers in the St. Lucie County School District’s only hearing impaired/deaf student program for pre-K through eighth-grade kids. In June, the eighth-graders will move on to classes for older hearing impaired and deaf students at Treasure Coast High School.
“Before this, my daughter Brischana would ask me what she could do for a career because she’s 100 percent deaf,” said parent Nancy Brown. “She was very depressed and worried. Now, she has completely changed.”
When the Brown family eats at Panariello’s, owner Rita Panariello always tells the family they’ll get a discount because Brischana works there, Nancy Brown said.
“This makes Brischana so proud because she has a job. She tells everyone she has a job now, and she feels she has a future,” her mother said.
“It makes you so happy to see them,” Rita Panariello said. “At Christmas we had about 15 kids (from the hearing impaired program) come over from the school and my son Philip helped each child make a full sized pizza.”
The children even tried tossing the dough in the air and spinning it, she said.
Irrepressible Brischana, 14, loves to ham it up for the camera, and she defends herself against her brother’s teasing in sign language.
“She’s just like any kid,” her mother said fondly, ruffling her daughter’s hair.
Chris Wallace, a tall, 15-year-old from Fort Pierce, and Princess Gordon, 14, from Port St. Lucie, also make pizza boxes, wrap utensils, help clean the restaurant, and wash dishes occasionally.
On the serious side of the twice-weekly trip to Panariello’s, the teens are getting some training to prepare for eventual jobs, learning responsibility, and learning appropriate behavior when on the job, their teacher said. They’re also expanding their sign language vocabulary.
Chris signs that his favorite part of the job is watching Philip spin the pizza dough in the air.
Princess prefers to wash dishes when she gets a chance, and loves the root beer reward she gets after she does her best.
Brischana prefers raspberry tea after she’s made her first 10 boxes, but she also likes wrapping utensils in napkins.
“What they are doing now will help them get the confidence they need for whatever they are going to do later in life,” Bozzo said.
Teenagers making pizza boxes on a couple of tables outside Panariello’s Pizza and Pastry Shop twice a week aren’t just folding cardboard carefully into boxes.
They’re creating a piece of their future.
The teens are participating in a community-based instruction program for the deaf and hearing impaired, learning job and life skills at a business under the supervision of Mattie Bozzo, a veteran teacher of the hearing impaired at Oak Hammock K-8 School.
Panariello’s is the only business where students from the Oak Hammock program are learning job and employee skills and concepts.
Bozzo is one of three teachers in the St. Lucie County School District’s only hearing impaired/deaf student program for pre-K through eighth-grade kids. In June, the eighth-graders will move on to classes for older hearing impaired and deaf students at Treasure Coast High School.
“Before this, my daughter Brischana would ask me what she could do for a career because she’s 100 percent deaf,” said parent Nancy Brown. “She was very depressed and worried. Now, she has completely changed.”
When the Brown family eats at Panariello’s, owner Rita Panariello always tells the family they’ll get a discount because Brischana works there, Nancy Brown said.
“This makes Brischana so proud because she has a job. She tells everyone she has a job now, and she feels she has a future,” her mother said.
“It makes you so happy to see them,” Rita Panariello said. “At Christmas we had about 15 kids (from the hearing impaired program) come over from the school and my son Philip helped each child make a full sized pizza.”
The children even tried tossing the dough in the air and spinning it, she said.
Irrepressible Brischana, 14, loves to ham it up for the camera, and she defends herself against her brother’s teasing in sign language.
“She’s just like any kid,” her mother said fondly, ruffling her daughter’s hair.
Chris Wallace, a tall, 15-year-old from Fort Pierce, and Princess Gordon, 14, from Port St. Lucie, also make pizza boxes, wrap utensils, help clean the restaurant, and wash dishes occasionally.
On the serious side of the twice-weekly trip to Panariello’s, the teens are getting some training to prepare for eventual jobs, learning responsibility, and learning appropriate behavior when on the job, their teacher said. They’re also expanding their sign language vocabulary.
Chris signs that his favorite part of the job is watching Philip spin the pizza dough in the air.
Princess prefers to wash dishes when she gets a chance, and loves the root beer reward she gets after she does her best.
Brischana prefers raspberry tea after she’s made her first 10 boxes, but she also likes wrapping utensils in napkins.
“What they are doing now will help them get the confidence they need for whatever they are going to do later in life,” Bozzo said.