“I realized, in a lot of ways, my sister was more intelligent than me,” DeAnna Purcell, co-founder of the College of Adaptive Arts recalls about her sister. “She never had her full abilities cultivated, honed, or supported properly.” DeAnna’s sister, Angel, was born with Down syndrome, a disorder of the body’s chromosome 21. Throughout her life, all her education has been through the public education system, a system that often isn’t able to fully support students with disabilities and thus, quickly becomes stressful for them. When Angel aged out of secondary school, she had no place that could allow her to continue her education while also providing her with the support she needed. Angel was DeAnna’s motivation for co-founding College of Adaptive Arts, the first lifelong learning model for adults with disabilities, in 2009. Continue reading College of Adaptive Arts Empowers Different Minds