May 16, 2014
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By: Gayane Jamgotchian and Alanna Bethon
In today’s age, where everything is in a constant state of movement and change, one thing that
remains timeless is the idea of encouraging students to make this world a better place. Here at
Queens College, the very foundational principle of our school is to help and serve the people
around us. Our motto, “Discimus ut Serviamus”, which translates into, “We learn so that we
may serve,” is a driving force in what paths students choose to embark on, and the classes they
take along the way. One class that exemplifies what it means to learn and really serve others in
our community, is a program offered to undergraduate students through a psychology practicum
known as SIBS Club.
The SIBS Club program was first created on Long Island by Drs. Kathleen Feeley (Center for
Community Inclusion at LIU Post) and Emily Jones with such success that is was brought over
and replicated here at Queens College by Drs. Emily Jones and Daniel Fienup. SIBS Club
fosters healthy interactions between children with autism and their siblings as well as their
peers. The program first trains undergraduate students to be Skills Instructors, teaching
students behavior intervention methods such as Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) and Incidental
Teaching (IT). Students then work with a learner, a term used to describe a child with autism, to
build individualized social skills, such as asking for help, engaging in eye contact, and
spontaneous commenting. After an hour of skills instruction, the learners attend recreational
activities with their siblings, peers, and instructors. The program creates a bidirectional learning
experience for both the children with autism and the undergraduate students who participate in
the course. It is an ongoing learning experience that is unlike any other class available at QC.
For obvious reasons, this sort of program is radically different than your typical lecture-based
course. Most college courses require students to sit in a giant lecture hall and passively listen to
the professor speak for three hours. How often are students able to take material from
PowerPoint slides and notes and actually implement what they learned in real-life situations?
Well, that is exactly what SIBS Club enables its students to do. Students attend lectures and
take quizzes, just like any other class. But, learning does not end in the classroom. Students
then use their knowledge to create trusting relationships with the children with autism as well as
create and strengthen their learner’s skills. First hand, students witness the difficult challenges
and beautiful surprises that come with life involving a child with autism. Students are constantly
engaged, allowing them to learn from their experiences with their child with autism. SIBS Club is
filled with a myriad of qualified Skills Leaders who work right along with the students. They are
there to provide students with constant feedback as well as respond to any questions. The
unique setup of the program allows the students to play the role of both a student and an
instructor.
The benefits of such a class are seemingly endless. The average student can make flashcards
or memorize terms, but in SIBS Club, students must recall information with every sense they
possess. The level of intense focus, and, thus, the connections made between material learned
and the memories created, compared to a typical lecture-based class, is unparalleled. In this
way, students are able to hone in on their strengths and weaknesses and improve drastically
throughout the program.
At the end of the day, there are only gains to be found in a class program like SIBS Club, as it
serves not one, but three groups of the community. Students learn a set of skills and receive
real-life experience by utilizing them, professors participate in a program that is unique and
relevant to their field of work, and, most of all, families in the Queens community receive the
help and love they so need and deserve. With that in mind, the goal of learning and serving,
could not be accomplished any more completely than how it already has been in SIBS Club.
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