 | 1 LU / HSW |
| 1 LU / HSW |
Morgan's Wonderland is a one-of-a kind theme park and supporting facilities dedicated to breaking barriers and opening conversation for people of all abilities. Morgan's mission is to provide a fun, clean, and beautiful environment free of physical and economic barriers that all individuals can come to and enjoy regardless of age or ability. Morgan’s Wonderland on-going vision to create and support a place where the common element of play creates an atmosphere of inclusion for those with and without disabilities while encouraging everyone to gain a greater understanding of one another. Morgan's organization oversees five fully-inclusive, Ultra-Accessible TM facilities where individuals of all ages and all abilities can come together for recreation and a better understanding of one another. Providing and expanding fully-inclusive spaces and programs takes a lot of teamwork! Join the conversation with the team making Morgan's Wonderland a special place changing the culture and stigma associated with being different. This workshop will change your life!
Learning Objectives:
Julie’s dedication to educational facilities planning spans nearly 32 years and includes a portfolio of projects that represent the spectrum of PK-12 and higher educational facilities for both public and private institutions. Currently, Julie is serving as the Director of Facilities Planning for SAISD. In her current role and those in the private sector, she has served school districts throughout North America as an educational instructor, facilities planner, project manager, curriculum director, and school business official. Ms. Williams is recognized as an international expert on the theory of multiple intelligences and the integration of curriculum into the built environment as teaching tools. Julie served as A4LE’s global chair for the 2019-2020 year. She was recognized as the Southwest Planner of the Year and a candidate for the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award. Julie is a Fellow, REFP, CBO, and most recently awarded the Delta Mu Delta outstanding business student achievement award.
Jessica is the CEO and General Manager of Morgan's Wonderland in San Antonio, TX. She joined this amazing and unique environment to share her love of teaching, working with people of all abilities, administration skills, and community outreach. Jessica has been part of the evolution of Morgan's Wonderland to include additional learning and experiential communities such as the United Soccer League sponsored by Toyota, Morgan's Camp, the waterpark, and many other environments. Jessica began her career with Morgan's Wonderland as the Programs and Events Coordinator. She is a proud UTSA graduate and a native San Antonian.
Energetic, goal-driven and professional producer, promoter, performer, and educator with a background in marketing, over 25 years of professional on stage, backstage, and on screen experience, exceptional communication skills, and a passion for making learning fun through entertainment. Constantly seeking to expand and improve as both a person and a professional by seeing opportunity in unlikely places, coming up with innovative strategies for success, and sharing a sense of wonder and excitement with people of all ages and abilities while effectively multitasking and managing administrative duties with finesse. Producer: my featured website has a list of projects. Promoter: 25+ years of experience strategizing, planning, and executing marketing, advertising, and PR campaigns for some of San Antonio's well-known firms, in addition to planning a host of professional events and handling media relations for multiple clients. Performer: acting & modeling history available on my featured website. Educator: 20+ years working with children of all abilities and backgrounds, making education fun through entertainment.
The built and natural environments have profound impacts on our behaviors both for better and worse. How do we cultivate a sense of place for better? How might the built and natural environments be made to enhance teaching and learning? How might school buildings and grounds foster a sense of community by reflecting those they serve?
Primary Core Competency
Educational Visioning: Exhibits an understanding of best and next practices related to educational leadership, programming, teaching, learning, planning and facility design. Establishes credibility with educators, community members and design professionals while conceiving and leading a community-based visioning process. Demonstrates the ability to articulate the impact of learning environments on teaching and learning and uses that ability to facilitate a dialogue that uncovers the unique needs and long-range goals of an educational institution and its stakeholders – translating that into an actionable written/graphic program of requirements for the design practitioner.
Learning Units/Health, Safety, Welfare (LU/HSW)
This presentation is specifically directed to raise awareness for designers, educators, parents, children, and community members interacting with people of all abilities. This presentation offers a look and application to best practices related to designing for all abilities children and adults. The focus of the presentation, application, tour, and off-site experience is to teach how to remove barriers allowing people to come together of all abilities to understand each other better and build friendships and a better world.