My name is Jordan Speer and I'm an Applied Sociology major with a focus in marketing and research who is currently a Seaton Foundation intern during my last semester of undergraduate. I am completing a 300-hour internship as part of my Applied Sociology degree program at Texas State University and was lucky enough to be placed at LiveOak Living Community just a few miles outside of San Marcos in Martindale, Texas. As an intern, I have learned a lot these past few weeks about long-term care programs and about people with cognitive disabilities and the challenges they can face. I have also learned how much people with cognitive disabilities are just like anyone else in society as they need and want the same things that anyone else would need and want.

LiveOak successfully gives its residents a plethora of opportunities to live a "normal life" while suffering from a cognitive disability. "Something to do, somewhere to do it, and someone to do it with" is what LiveOak is all about and it's the exact thing it offers to its residents with the help of staff and interns. Whether that means being able to participate in a club or activity such as yoga class, chess club, or dance class or going into town for a bite to eat or watch a movie, residents can be socially active which leads to creating rich and fulfilling lives. LiveOak is people-focused and not diagnosis-focused. People with cognitive disabilities are much more than just their disability and each resident at LiveOak is unique with different likes, dislikes, hopes, and ambitions and it is important to give them the chance to experience things they enjoy on a day-to-day level.

From a marketing standpoint, I have been given ample assignments and projects with both internal and external marketing. I have created resident profiles for future staff, a one-page front-and-back flyer that was brought to a Special Needs Trust conference in which I was able to attend, helped update and manage The Seaton Foundation website, designing a new Seaton Foundation business card, and am currently brainstorming many new ideas for marketing materials and strategies. I am thankful to The Seaton Foundation for giving me the opportunities to further my interest and skills in marketing and have loved getting to learn more about long-term care programs and how to market them.