![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernjournal\/files\/2018\/05\/DREAM-1024x683.jpg\")
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Sam Dunaway | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n A new organization joined Western\u2019s campus in April; D.R.E.A.M., which stands for \u201cDisability, Rights, Empowerment, Awareness and Mentoring,\u201d is a club that aims to provide a judgement-free zone for Western students, faculty and staff to talk about disabilities and the challenges that individuals with disabilities may face at Western.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a place for us to talk about our lives but then also find ways to change the campus and change people\u2019s perspectives,\u201d explained D.R.E.A.M. club founder and sophomore Frankie Holborn. Holborn participated in a discussion panel for Western Accessibility Awareness Month where individuals talked about their experiences with a disability. She realized that many students with disabilities were facing similar challenges and took it upon herself to create a way for these students to help one another.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor a lot of disabled people, it\u2019s very hard to want to come out and ask for help, and want to join clubs like this,\u201d said Holborn. <\/span><\/p>\n While the club is still new, they hope to do big things at Western. Club leader and sophomore early childhood education major Faith Van Putten aspires to help future educators learn about disabilities in the classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI want to focus on the teaching aspect of it and do the parts with the future teachers and getting them more educated on disabilities,\u201d said Van Putten. She claimed that Western\u2019s education program does not teach extensively about working with students with disabilities, explaining, \u201cThere\u2019s so many different (disabilities) and no two people with the same disability are alike and their accommodations are never the same. So, I want to focus on that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To erase the stigma around disabilities, Holborn invites everyone to attend club meetings and ask questions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe want people to talk to us about it,\u201d Holborn expressed. She hopes that both students and professors take the time to learn more about disabilities and ways to make Western more accessible for individuals with disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t know if you want to identify with the community or if you don\u2019t know if this club is right for you, I\u2019d say come. We\u2019re very open-minded. We want to talk with you. We are a judgement-free zone,\u201d encouraged Holborn. \u201cAnyone is welcome.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To learn more about Western\u2019s D.R.E.A.M. club, visit OrgSync or attend a club meeting Mondays at 6 p.m. in the Calapooia room.<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sam Dunaway | News Editor A new organization joined Western\u2019s campus in April; D.R.E.A.M., which stands for \u201cDisability, Rights, Empowerment, Awareness and Mentoring,\u201d is a club that aims to provide a judgement-free zone for Western students, faculty and staff to talk about disabilities and the challenges that individuals with disabilities may face at Western. \u201cIt\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":7719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}