My Big Project

What is the main goal?

When I was 10 years old I was introduced to my cousin Owen, he was 9 at the time and I noticed he was a little different. I didn't care really at the time, by that I simply mean that I didn't take it into too much consideration. I tried to communicate as I normally would anyone else. I was playing with my cousin Bryce, who was 12 then, he said "Summer, Owen doesn't really communicate like you and I." I asked him what that meant and he told me that Owen had Autism. I still had no idea what that meant. Now, I actually understand that kids with autism and other disabilities think, communicate, and altogether function differently. I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way, some kids with special needs can actually be quite brilliant and see and do things in a way we never thought possible. I also have this unexplainable fascination with the equine species. I think that horses can also teach us things in a new way. I've had quite literally a lifetime of experience with horses and I want to move on from the basic riding and groundwork. I want to do something bigger and better. I want to do create something beneficial for other people, not just myself. So, I am a junior in high school and I take a course called "Innovations" it is made up of three juniors and six seniors, and we essentially solve something that in the long run we think could benefit the world. We have an assignment that is a long term project (when I say long term, I mean for Juniors we have from now until May and seniors have until March). Our assignment is to pick a topic that we are interested in and what to study over this long period of time. I decided that for my big project I was going to take my love of horses and "curiosity" if you will, of the special education field (since that is what I want to major in when I get to college) and combine them to somehow create an Equine Assisted Therapy program for kids with Special Needs. I plan to do plenty of research on how these types of programs are run, what types of disabilities I will encounter, and how I can prepare myself and my equine partners for this journey. In the end I hope to have recorded data from my experiences throughout my time with this project and also gather some statistics (i.e. Horses compared to other therapy mediums, horses compared to other animals, behavior of kids who to these types of programs versus kids who don't, etc.) and maybe off of this I can someday create an actual business out of this.