The STAR Complex, newly opened on the Temple University campus, features a mock apartment where physical and occupational therapy students can learn about the equipment people with disabilities use to perform activities of daily living. (Photo courtesy of The Temple News)
The newly opened Aramark Student Training and Recreation (STAR) Complex features a teaching apartment where physical and occupational therapy students can learn about the equipment used by people with disabilities to perform activities of daily living.
Located on the Philadelphia-based Temple University campus, the STAR Complex is now available to students in the 2017-18 academic school year. A dedication ceremony was held recently to celebrate its completion, according to a news article from the campus newspaper The Temple News.
The educational apartment features wheelchair-height kitchen counters and a fully accessible bathroom and bedroom. Students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned in the classroom to aid people with disabilities.
Lauren Highsmith, a student services coordinator with Disability Resources and Services, says in the news article that the new facilities are beneficial for all students, regardless of their majors and colleges.
“It’s great…for students with disabilities in general to have the option of going over there and knowing that there’s adaptable equipment that’s there for them to use and that there are people over there who will know how to use it.”
Highsmith adds that the STAR Complex may help Temple University compete with other schools offering physical and occupational therapy programs.
“If you line us up with Drexel and Penn State and those kinds of schools, you need to have something that sticks out more than the others,” she shares. “I think that having something like [the educational apartments] that they can use as a marketing tool can help us stand out against some of the other local schools.”
[Source: The Temple News]
