Bluffton native’s work with special needs adults gains national attention
By MARK MILLER
Bluffton made some national news over the weekend, and a Bluffton native’s ongoing work may be in line for even more national exposure.
DeAnna Ellenberger Pursai’s College of Adaptive Arts in San Jose, Calif., was featured on Cable News Network’s “CNN Heroes,” an ongoing series that highlights what they call “everyday people doing extraordinary things to change the world.” The nearly eight-minute video, which aired Saturday, features the 1990 Bluffton High School graduate’s school for continuing education of adults with developmental challenges.
The school, and Pursai’s journey to co-found and operate it, were the subject of a feature article in The News-Banner May 19, 2019, after the school had received a Congressional Certificate of Recognition through the efforts of U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents California’s 17th District. About a month ago, Pursai was contacted by the national cable network that they had been nominated and selected to be featured in their series.
“They spent two-and-a-half days filming at our home and at the school,” Pursai told The News-Banner this week. She added that the crew, which consisted of a cameraman based in Los Angeles and the producer who flew out from New York, focused on four families and stories but ultimately only used two. The video opens with Pursai’s work with her sister, Angel Ellenberger, who is one year younger than Pursai and has Down syndrome.
“We were essentially twin sisters growing up,” Pursai explains in the video and, as shared in the 2019 News-Banner story, her sister played a key role in Pursai’s career selection and the development of the College of Adaptive Arts.
Angel Ellenberger continues to live primarily with her parents, Ken and Jill Ellenberger of Bluffton, but spends most of the winter living with her sister in California and attending the college.
The college continues to grow, Pursai reported this week, and purely by coincidence was well positioned to deal with COVID over the past two years.
“We had received a ‘distance-learning’ grant before COVID hit,” she explained. “It had long been our goal to have that capability because many of our clients and potential clients either cannot physically travel to our campus or they do not have the transportation options.”
Hence, when the pandemic shut things down in March 2020, “We were ready. We just kept going”
The college had 118 students at that time; today, they are serving 162 adults.
“There were some, perhaps about 10 percent of our clients, who don’t have the capability to deal with technology,” she added, “but they are now back in person.”
Pursai is not sure of the process or timing, but CNN annually pares the features down to ten finalists and then selects a “CNN Hero of the Year.” The winning organization then receives a $100,000 grant and a fair amount of national publicity.
“And I feel the need to apologize a bit,” Pursai added. “I didn’t mention Bluffton in the video.” At one point, Pursai said that she and Angel had grown up “in rural Indiana.”
“Generally speaking, people don’t know where ‘Bluffton, Ind.,’ might be but they understand ‘rural Indiana.’ In hindsight, I wished I’d have been more specific.”
miller@news-banner.com
