Marie Marks O’Bryan

Cedar Park

Marie Marks O’Bryan is an educator that is passionate about meaningful inclusion as well as curriculum accessibility. She is also the parent of a child with Down syndrome. O’Bryan pursued Texas partners in Policymaking to create meaningful training and employment opportunities in her community. She looks forward to educating businesses on the benefits of employing individuals with developmental disabilities.

Project Title

Planting Seeds of Awareness to Grow Empathy

Project Description

The vision of this project is to bring disability awareness to a campus, discover commonalities, acknowledge similarities as well as differences, and emphasize that classmates are more alike than different. This spring, O’Bryan was given the opportunity to bring disability awareness to Goodwater Montessori Charter School through World Down Syndrome
Day. She provided inclusive lessons to first through eighth-graders. The awareness project included peer presentation, shared reading and films, personal reflection, a Q&A, and discussions. The intent was to simply build disability understanding and grow compassion amongst students in her community.