The Elmwood Park Zoo is offering special needs students the opportunity to develop workspace skills and gain experience interacting with zoo visitors. In partnership with The Pathway School in West Norriton Township, the zoo welcomes a small group of students each Friday in October as a part of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Through the workforce development program, students learn facts about animals on display at the zoo and share that information with visitors walking through its exhibits. Taylor Feierman, a student at The Pathway School, had the opportunity to participate as a student-worker on Oct. 9. “I would say it is learning to speak to people better. Most of the time I’m not a social person. This has really helped me in being a social with people, people specifically in large, crowded areas, like a zoo” said Feierman about the experience. The Pathway School is a non-profit institution that prepares students with disabilities for life after graduation. The school’s leaders believe the skills their students are learning at the zoo will transfer to a future job. According to school leaders, many of The Pathway School’s students go onto full time and part-time employment when they graduate, in addition to post-secondary, college, and trade school. ...read more read less