Graduates with intellectual disabilities find work at South Carolina hotel

In the heart of downtown Clemson, South Carolina, the Shepherd Hotel is a community hub buzzing with locals and visitors. Like most hotels, the staff is what makes the difference. But here, the staff also makes it unique.

Around 30% of the staff have an intellectual disability. Workers make between $13 and $18 per hour including tips — far above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Nationwide, 16% of people with an intellectually disability are employed, according to a ThinkWork survey.

The Shepherd’s owner, Rick Hayduk, brought his vision of employing intellectually disabled people to life in part because two of his four children have Down syndrome.

“If we do our job right, someone leaves here inspired,” Hayduk said.

The hotel partnered with a program at nearby Clemson University called ClemsonLIFE. Students, including Hayduk’s daughter Jamison, not only take college courses, they also learn skills to help them live and work independently.

The program’s participants learn everything from time management and hygiene to banking and budgeting, according to program director Erica Walters. Nearly all of the graduates who have been through the program are employed. Plans are underway to open two similar hotels in South Carolina next year.

“We want to grow for the sake of inspiration and change,” Hayduk said.

The program is changing lives.

Alex Eveland, a recent graduate from ClemsonLIFE, is now employed as a server at the Shepherd Hotel. Eveland has Down syndrome, and as a child, doctors thought he would never walk or talk. Now he is working toward a hospitality certification and has dreams of opening his own restaurant one day.

“I have no time to have a bad day in life, because I want to tell people, people could do anything in life,” Eveland said.

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