About Micah
Writings - Awards - Links
Micah is part of the new wave of adults with intellectual disabilities attending college (www.thinkcollege.net). Since first grade, when he told his parents he wanted to go in the same door as all of his friends, he has been fully included in his school, community, and now on a college campus. While in high school, he was active in many clubs, ran cross country, chosen to be on the Home Coming Court, and awarded the Social Studies Department Award for his civic involvement. He was also actively involved in planning and participating in all of his Individualized Education Plan (I.E.P.) meetings.
In 2001 he was selected to participate in the Michigan Youth Leadership Forum and in 2002 in the National Youth Leadership Forum. He has been a proud and active National Board Member of KASA (Kids as Self Advocates) (www.kasa.org) for the past six years, and is a member of a Teleconference Education committee with the National Youth Leadership Network (www.nyln.org). Micah is currently interning with the Michigan Rountable for Diversity and Inclusion (www.miroundtable.org).
Micah enjoys presenting at conferences on advocacy, post secondary education, and self determination, and his experiences learning and living on a university campus. He has presented in several states across the country for groups and conferences including People First, PEAK Conference on Inclusive Education, Partners in Policy, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), International Parent to Parent, TASH, Arc, NCIL, NYLN, Family Voices, Council of Exceptional Children (CEC) as well for transition conferences, college classes, parent groups, and middle and high schools.
To learn more about Micah's two year struggle to move into the dorm, click here.
To learn more about Micah's inclusive high school experience click
here (http://www.wholeschooling.net/WS/Video/Micah.html)
Read about Micah's inclusive journey at the SpecialQuest blog: Inclusion! What's In It For Everyone?
Board and Committee Memberships:
Governing Board for National Youth Leadership Network (NYLN) (www.nyln.org). NYLN is
the national voice for young leaders with disabilities
National Project
Advisory Committee for the Center for Postsecondary Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (funded by NIDRR & ADD) (www.thinkcollege.net)
Advisory Board Member for Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, (Syracuse University's School of Education)
Advisory Board Member of TASH, (www.tash.org): TASH is an international association
of people with disabilities, their family members and a wide array of other advocates and
professionals.
Board Member for Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, Inc. (www.mpas.org).The
mission of MPAS is to advocate and protect the legal rights of people with disabilities.
Family
Micah's mom, Janice Fialka, MSW, ACSW, is national speaker on issues of inclusive education, secondary transition, siblings issues and ways to strengthen the parent-professional partnership.
Bio
Micah's sister, Emma Fialka-Feldman is a student at Mount Holyoke
College who writes and speaks on topics including sibling issues, the"r-word" (retard) and inclusive education.
Bio
Micah's dad, Rich Feldman, is a community-labor activist and writer.
He is a board member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to
Nurture Community Leadership (boggscenter.org) and Detroit City of
Hope (dcoh.org) and enjoys talking with parent groups about disability
justice, pride and inclusion.
