Kaleidoscope Crew Featured in The Eagle-Tribune's Real News in Schools

One of the meaningful additions to the Austin Prep community during the 2025-2026 academic year has been the Kaleidoscope Crew, which is a campus employment initiative that brings individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities into meaningful roles at Austin Prep. Through a partnership with BrightBridge Neurodiversity Workforce Partners, Crew members support the daily operations of the School while engaging in purposeful, supported work. Introduced last November, this collaboration exemplifies Austin Prep’s mission to form young people with Augustinian hearts shaped in veritas, unitas, and caritas. Together, Austin Prep and BrightBridge are building a bridge between education and meaningful work – demonstrating how inclusion, guided by love, can transform hearts and minds and illuminate the restless journey we all travel. 

The program was recently featured in a story written by Ciera Balfe '27 in the May edition of the Real News in Schools special section insert of The Eagle-Tribune. This section features student-driven and school-related stories from a select group of area schools, and Austin Prep content has appeared consistently each month this past winter and spring. If you are a writer interested in getting involved with the Real News in Schools initiative, reach out to Brett Rudy, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. 

Read Ciera's story about The Kaleidoscope Crew.

Kaleidoscope Crew member Mia Kruppa and Mr. Todd Ackerman, Assistant Director of Technology are featured in the above photo.