By Leslie Fuentes
Public Communications
Chris Kaye’s workday at the Humble ISD Spirit Store begins as he opens the curtains, places the storefront sign outside the door and checks for mail.
The 21-year-old Atascocita High School graduate is a third-year student in the Humble ISD MOSAIC Program’s transition program for students who are 18 and older who received special education services.
About 100 students participate in the MOSAIC Program annually. Some of these students are selected to work in the Spirit Store, where they learn employability skills.
Two to three students serve in the Spirit Store each day, with students rotating every nine weeks to give more students the opportunity to gain real-life work experience.
“The Spirit Store and the MOSAIC Program are about teaching students necessary skills, getting them out there and letting them see for themselves what all they can do,” Robin Sulpizio, an educational aide with the program, said.
The shelves of the Spirit Store are stocked with colorful fabric notebooks, wind chimes, wooden signs, coasters, lanyards, sugar scrubs and bath bombs—all made by MOSAIC students in the production lab where students create the products sold in the Spirit Store.
The Spirit Store provides students like Chris with the opportunity to learn essential skills such as interpersonal communication, customer service, and employability.
Every day before lunch time, students bake fresh cookies and prepare fresh popcorn. They bag the food items and sell them on every floor of the Humble ISD Administration Building.
Students restock the store refrigerator with cold drinks, replenish shelves with snacks and help with bagging purchases. Every week, they conduct inventory by counting every single item in the store.
“Students learn the necessary skills to go out and get themselves a paid job,” Sulpizio said. “That, to me, is the best part of this program.”
She notes that some students who worked in the Spirit Store and transitioned out of MOSAIC now have full-time jobs, have obtained their driver’s licenses and are making plans to live on their own.
“The Spirit Store is something that all the kids should experience because they get to not only see how things are made and sold, but they also get to interact with other people on a daily basis,” Nancy Kaye, Chris’ mother, said. “This opens up the opportunity for students in the MOSAIC Program to get a job, and that’s one of the biggest things that parents want their kids to accomplish.”
