Residential Education Experts Instill Life Lessons in Milton Hershey School Transitional Living
At Milton Hershey School, Transitional Living (TL) is a program that prepares senior students for life after graduation. They live in apartment-style accommodations with supervision from residential education professionals. Each day is a teaching opportunity for TL staff who instill life lessons and skills among seniors. These staff also serve as role models and mentors, helping students prepare for life as adults.
Below, some of the MHS TL staff share what the TL program means to them.
Courtney Williams, Transitional Living Coordinator
TL is a place where our seniors can practice vital life skills, interpersonal skills, budgeting, making their own schedules—skills that they will regularly use outside of MHS—while still being in a safe environment to learn and grow. It’s a place where we encourage our students to be independent while we equip them with the tools to successfully face the challenges ahead. At MHS, staff are always there to support our students, but TL is the first stepping stone for our students to trust in their own ability as adults in preparation for them to venture far and wide beyond MHS.
Mark McKamey, Transitional Living Coordinator
I’ve been working in TL at MHS for 15 years. The TL experience is an opportunity for students to practice life skills they’ve learned while being at MHS within the confines of the program, which works kind of like a safety net allowing students to make mistakes and learn from them before they enter the real world. The TL program allows students to grow and to improve their time-management and study skills. As TL staff, we get to watch seniors form close bonds with their peers, and these friendships continue for a lifetime.
Howard Haas ’14, Transitional Living Assistant
I am a TL staff member and also an alumnus from the Class of 2014. I experienced TL myself as a student at MHS, and now I teach seniors the lessons they’ll need to become independent young adults after graduation. The TL experience helps our seniors learn how to cook for themselves, clean for themselves, and manage conflict resolution. All of those are life lessons our students will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Morgan Staub, Transitional Living Assistant
The TL program is all about making sure that our students are prepared for life after MHS. We do this by giving them more freedoms as well as more responsibilities so they can learn how to navigate different “real-world” situations while still having support and guidance from MHS staff. We don’t just teach them about things like grocery shopping, money management, and taking ownership of their health, but we also have programming in place that allows them to put those lessons into action. All of this comes together to create an experience that makes our seniors feel confident in themselves and their abilities to tackle whatever comes next for them after graduation.
Transitional Living Staff Explains What TL Is
