Welcome to The Happy of Inclusion Website

Inclusion is changing the world, but not fast enough! Welcome to The Happy of Inclusion where we will talk about inclusion, share our stories, and show others the power and the importance of including all.

My name is Dr. Lizanne Pando and I am a writer and speaker on inclusion. My research involves the supports provided to students in higher education with Down syndrome reach their academic, social, and independent living goals. This new pathway for young adults with Down syndrome is providing them with gainful employment at graduation between 85% and 90% of the time. (Neuville, 2017; Cavaiuolo, 2023).

Although this statistic is so positive, only .04% of those with Down syndrome are attending college at this point. We need to push for more college inclusion and better high school education college preparedness. Together, I believe we can make a difference. In telling our stories we can show what inclusion should look like and why it is important to all of our society.

Our personal story began with the birth of our youngest daughter, Jenna. When she was born with Down syndrome, we did not know what we were going to do to protect her, to teach her, to help her. But we quickly learned that she was our teacher and with love and patience and some ingenuity everyone benefited from including her. Now she is a senior at East Stroudsburg University working in 3 jobs.

On this site I will be blogging what I have learned and our stories and other’s stories that will help us share the power of The Happy of Inclusion.

Share your story for our conversation! Click Here.