Expecting Longer Lives With Greater Risk, Reward

The LIFE Program that Holden attends at George Mason University's Helen A. Kellar Center for Human disAbilities is in its sixth year, and it is not cheap. Tuition, which is $16,500 a year for a non-degree program, is about the cost of a GMU degree for out-of-state students.

But it also offers a shot at independence.

"With each stage, as with a non-disabled child, you're giving them a little freedom and watching to see if they can handle it," said Jeanne Holden, Jennifer's mother. She knows that her daughter might not realize her dream of becoming a professional teacher and that she probably will be unable to live by herself without support. But her daughter also surprises.

"More often than not, they rise to the occasion," Jeanne Holden said. "Sometimes you've got to take a deep breath. You take that same deep breath earlier with your other kids. But you have to let them go. If they're going to go as far as they can, you've got to let them try."

Jennifer Holden loves movies and musicals, especially "The Three Musketeers" with Charlie Sheen and "High School Musical." She often goes to the movies with friends. She also has been serving as an assistant religion instructor for young children at her synagogue in Alexandria and this summer worked as an assistant counselor in a Fairfax County recreation program. Last year, she spent a week living in a GMU dorm, preparing microwaved meals and navigating the campus. She loved it.

"Independent living is to live by yourself in dorms without my parents and without my siblings -- by ourselves and without my siblings bothering me sometimes," she says. She adds that she really enjoyed fixing her own meals. "I cooked for myself -- I loved that. Hardest thing to do -- cross a street. That's a big problem. Sometimes I don't like it when there's an accident. I don't like cars" crushed up, she says.

A trip to the Metro and a fast-food restaurant with her class last week illustrates the rewards and possible perils that she faces along the way.

Holden's classes in independent living and community access combined classroom work and a field trip with four instructors, 21 students and three former students who work as interns. The students, who have intellectual disabilities including Down syndrome, autism and traumatic brain injuries, hugged often and exchanged high-fives. At times, they had trouble understanding the teacher's explanations, but they kept trying.

Holden, in particular, seemed to be bursting with things to say. Thin, petite and with an obvious sense of poise, she was eager to participate, whether listing her favorite restaurants or doodling hearts and flowers on a piece of paper. When she is excited, her voice zooms upward in pitch like a slide whistle.

"Awesome!" Holden squeals when she hears a classmate's jazzy cellphone ring tone.

Because of her disability, Holden has to work hard at things that are easy for many others. She did not always understand what the instructors or people outside the class were talking about. Making herself understood can be difficult as well because of a speech impediment and sometimes broken syntax.

Her day began in a literature class with a simplified version of Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Then came an independent-living session that included an explanation of how to prepare a tuna sandwich and use the Metro system.