The Berkshire Center’s College Internship Program (CIP) is for young adults with learning disabilities. CIP’s counseling program provides ‘essential support and direction’ for students as they strive to take charge of their life and become independent. Individual and group counseling are offered as well as consulting psychiatric services and consulting medical services.

The academic part of CIP offers intensive reading remediation with Wilson trained reading specialists. Students typically attend three individual tutoring sessions per week, which are designed to improve their basic academic levels of skill. The curriculum includes critical thinking, current events, organization/time management/study and library research skills. Other topics include communication, health issues, government, civic responsibilities, reading, writing, and math skills, along with life skills and banking skills.

Students live in 1-5 room apartments in Lee, MA. The residential staff works with students to assess and teach skills necessary for independence. They offer support and instruction in apartment maintenance and cleaning in scheduled weekly appointments. Social life, recreation, physical fitness and healthy lifestyle are important in the CIP program.

Each student is assigned a CIP Student Advisor, whose role is to be a case manager and advisor for the student. The CIP communicates academic, internship and residential progress with the student’s family on a bi-weekly basis, and is responsible for helping the student to coordinate schedules, set appointments, make short and long term goals, coordinate a program plan and deal with day-to-day problems.