From early childhood, Mikayla Holmgren knew she wanted to attend her dad’s alma mater, Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn. She got her wish and even lived in the same dorm where she came home as a newborn when her dad was attending seminary. Mikayla has also testified before the United Nations, competed in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant and modeled for Sephora. Her résumé is all the more remarkable because she has Down syndrome. Until relatively recently, people with the condition had few options for higher education and employment.
L.O.P.E.S. Academy participants Chase Baird (left) and Matthew Adams (right) celebrate receiving their certificates of completion at GCU Spring Commencement in May 2023. (Photo courtesy of Ralph Freso/GCU News)
Mikayla and hundreds of students like her are attending specialized programs created for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, known as IDD. In recent years, options have expanded, and several Christian colleges and universities across the United States now offer such programs.
Dawn Allen, director of Bethel’s BUILD program, said some students were born into families who were told their children should be institutionalized. Other families were told their children would never walk or talk. BUILD, which started in 2015, is a two-year residential program. Students earn a Certificate of Applied Studies, gain work experience through internships and live the college experience.
Allen said a residential program at a Christian university gives BUILD students a distinct opportunity. Participants take Bible classes, join clubs, attend sporting events, work on campus and receive close peer and faculty support.
“Being able to be away from home, to do as much as you can, while we still have support in place, has been such a valuable opportunity for students, and to have a high level of expectation for students as well,” said Allen. “Students who are enrolled in the BUILD program are Bethel University students. So it’s all the same behavioral expectations, and then again, all of the supports [are] in place to help this be possible for them.”
Christian formation and community
Christian universities are not the only schools offering programs for students with IDD. According to Think College, the leading resource for higher education for students with IDD, there are more than 300 programs in the United States. The vast majority are at secular institutions.
Allen said students and their families value a program that combines academics and life preparation in a Christian environment. Andrew Bruce, director of Liberty University’s new IDD program, Liberty LIFE, ties the initiative to the university’s core mission.
“Training champions for Christ doesn’t just mean some people, right? It’s for everybody,” Bruce said. He noted that Liberty LIFE students will participate in devotions and chapel and take Bible classes such as Old Testament Survey, just as traditional students do.
Commuter versus residential options
While some programs, like BUILD, are full-time and residential, other Christian schools take a commuter approach. Grand Canyon University’s L.O.P.E.S. Academy, short for Learning Opportunities for Participation and Engagement in School, is a part-time program in Phoenix founded in 2021. Students attend classes twice a week for five hours each day and take part in campus activities and internships.
Courtney Patton, the academy’s program manager, said a commuter program gives students a chance to practice navigating to and from campus. Allen, meanwhile, emphasized that residential students can put daily living skills into practice in a supportive but real-world environment.
Building life skills and preparing for a career
Representatives of each program who spoke with MinistryWatch stressed career preparation. The employment rate for working-age adults with IDD is low compared with that of the general population. One 2018 study found that only 19% of people with IDD were gainfully employed.
Bruce said many parents of students with IDD wonder what will happen to their children when the parents can no longer care for them. He hopes Liberty LIFE will help answer that question for students and their families. “I’ve heard from so many parents reaching out just desperate to find that place that is going to fit the needs of their child,” he said.
Work experience is an integral part of each program. Depending on their interests and available positions, students might work on campus or with a partner in the community. Each program includes peer mentorship, in which a fellow student helps the newcomer get to and from work, adjust to the environment and master the job. The goal is for the mentor to “fade back,” as Allen described it, perhaps providing only transportation and encouragement as the semester goes on.
The work experience pays off. “For students who have graduated from the BUILD program or other programs like ours nationwide, the statistics are completely flipped. Over 80% of our graduates are employed within the first three months after graduation,” Allen said.
Program directors described a variety of employment outcomes. One student operates his own food truck business with his family’s support. Another graduate has worked at a local Trader Joe’s for several years.
David Kaetterhenry and Kirsta Graf, Bethel University BUILD students, at their internship at Dunn Brothers Coffee. (Photo courtesy of Bethel University and AJ Barrett)
School spirit and alumni pride
Each program described a strong alumni community and a desire among graduates to stay connected to their school. “We hired a L.O.P.E.S. Academy grad to be our alumni associate, and now she helps facilitate opportunities to come back to campus to connect,” Patton said. She added that graduates enjoy maintaining social connections and being around the hive of activity on campus.
BUILD also fosters alumni engagement, bringing graduates back throughout the school year to talk with current students about their experiences and the work they do after college.
Integrations and Impacts with the Traditional Student Population
An IDD program also affects the broader student body. “They’re really learning what life looks like when you’re living in a unified or integrated way and seeing the value and benefit of that. We’ve had so many students who have shared that they feel that they’ve grown through this experience,” Allen said. “We’re seeing more and more students who say that they chose Bethel because they wanted to be part of the BUILD program as mentors.”
Finding the balance between the specialized aspects of an IDD program and opportunities to interconnect with the traditional student population can be challenging. A 2018 lawsuit, which was settled out of court, alleged that BUILD was not sufficiently integrating BUILD students with the general student body. Allen said she was unable to share specifics of the settlement, but that Bethel “took the concerns raised at the time seriously and made some adjustments to the program.”
Allen added that the BUILD team is “always learning from the experiences and feedback of our students and families as we work to provide a meaningful, supportive experience for each student.” Today, BUILD students are able to take general academic classes alongside their Bethel peers, with the support of a peer mentor and specialized rubric.
Program costs and donor support
The cost of an IDD college program ranges from a few thousand dollars a year to full tuition and fees at a private university. The part-time L.O.P.E.S. Academy costs $5,000 a year, or $10,000 over two years.
Programs like BUILD and Liberty LIFE are much more expensive because they are tied to tuition and fees at a private university. BUILD cost about $60,000 before financial aid in the 2025-26 academic year.
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Liberty LIFE, now in its pilot stage, is a noncredit commuter program. Bruce said the goal is to make it residential beginning in fall 2027, which would make it the second residential program of its kind in Virginia. Full tuition and fees have not been set, but Bruce said his team is benchmarking the program against similar ones at George Mason University, Clemson University and Georgia Tech. He said the goal is to set the cost “at a reasonable comparison to theirs.” George Mason’s program, Mason LIFE, costs $22,000 a year for Virginia students paying in-state tuition, plus $27,000 for housing and fees for those who live on campus.
Financial aid and scholarships can offset the total cost, and sources vary from school to school and state to state. Programs approved by the U.S. Department of Education as Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary, or CTP, programs can offer students federal financial aid. Minnesota, where BUILD is located, has a grant program specifically for students with disabilities who attend CTPs. South Carolina, home to Clemson LIFE, probably the nation’s best-known CTP, provides grants of $15,000 per student per year to attend a CTP.
At the private Christian institutions MinistryWatch spoke with, public funding is an important source of help, but private philanthropy plays a key part as well. Thanks to private donations, Bethel awarded more than $100,000 in scholarships to 32 students last year.
The L.O.P.E.S. Academy is largely funded by a donor who gave seed money and committed to ongoing support. “Our entire program is supported by someone who has a vision for philanthropic giving,” Patton said. She explained that the donor’s family, whose daughter Emma has an intellectual disability, approached the university about starting a program. “He asked his daughter, well, if you could attend any university, where would you want to go? And she said ‘GCU.’ So conversations happened and we were able to create the program to support other students with disabilities who had the same motivations as Emma.”
At Liberty, the university is paying for the startup, but the program will eventually have to sustain itself. “The startup is being funded by the university, but ongoing, we’ll have to be self-sustaining, so we’ll have to take in what we spend on the program,” Bruce said. He noted that donor support will be key to keeping the cost of Liberty LIFE within reach for families. “We’ve heard from a lot of people who do want to join in and help donate and support this type of program.”
Bruce said some people might wonder whether the significant financial investment is wise for a student who probably will not go on to have a lucrative career. But his more than 20 years in special education have convinced him of the program’s value. “If an investment of a certain amount of money … means that this person can live independently, be working in the community, what does that mean for the individual, for the family?” Bruce asked. “It’s answering the deepest prayer and concern that they’ve had throughout their life.”
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