Dream Big Career Exploration Camp 2026 Report

Talented disabled people are shut out of work in staggering numbers. Only 28% of college-educated disabled adults have jobs, less than half the rate of their nondisabled peers.

The barriers show up early. By middle and high school, many disabled students have heard plenty from others about what they can’t do. Far fewer have heard about what they could become.

Dream Big flips that script.

At Camp, students spend their days inside real workplaces, talking with professionals about what they do and how they got there. Many of those professionals are disabled, and they speak openly about how they get their work done.

Students also build skills they can use right now: speaking up for what they need in school, learning about disability history, and connecting with peers who share their experience.

Each student left with a clearer picture of their future,
and the confidence to go after it.

The efforts companies put into our visits show students their futures matter.

The curriculum we teach helps them develop the tools to be successful now, and as independent adults with disabilities.

Dream Big Career Camp introduces students to exciting careers and connects them with disabled mentors. This year, Camp gave them something more: a real taste of college life.

Camp’s home base was the campus of Webster University. Students had “class” in a real college classroom. A current Webster student led them on an official campus tour. They even walked into a residence hall, stepped inside an actual dorm room, and sat on the bed.

These may seem like little things.

But kids with disabilities are often never asked what they want to be when they grow up. Many have never been encouraged to picture themselves in college at all.

Some of our students had only thought about college with fear or anxiety. Others had decided it was “for other people.”

At Webster, they weren’t just imagining what might be possible. For a moment, they were living in their possible future.

A few students took pictures of themselves sitting on that dorm bed. They’re keeping those photos to stay connected to the big dreams ahead.

That’s the heart of Dream Big. When students meet disabled mentors, sit in a college classroom, and see themselves in a dorm room, college stops looking like something for other people.

It starts to look like a place where they belong.

Dream Big Career Camp could not happen without our committed corporate partners and donors, who dedicate immense time and effort and financial resources to ensure our students are engaged and inspired every day. Thank you!