{"id":60,"date":"2025-10-13T10:18:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/60\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:18:22","slug":"san-antonio-coffee-truck-helps-train-adults-with-learning-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/60\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio coffee truck helps train adults with learning disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

An iced vanilla latte with whole milk, a caramel macchiato and a regular black with no sugar \u2014 the orders poured into the food truck left and right, but Ray Gonzalez took them without skipping a beat.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez is an adult with an intellectual and developmental disability, or IDD. The others manning the truck also had learning disabilities. <\/p>\n

It was opening day for Rising Stars Coffee, a fully-stocked cafe truck staffed by students, or \u201cstars,\u201d from San Antonio Life Academy, a day program for adults with IDDs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officially launching on a sunny morning Sept. 24, the coffee truck is part of the academy\u2019s career development program, offering students training for potential job opportunities. Working at the coffee truck is kind of like an internship for students. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids, they can do anything I can do. It just takes practice,\u201d said Samantha Pety, head of school and co-executive director for the academy, while taking a short break from managing the truck. <\/p>\n

Housed at Mount Cavalry Lutheran Church in Alamo Heights, the academy serves 164 students. Some students only attend the academy a few days a week, and others go everyday depending on the level of need students and their families have.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"San Antonio Life Academy student Ray Gonzalez, right, takes orders from customers in the Rising Stars Coffee truck on opening day outside of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church on Sept. 24, 2025. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Class sizes are small, capped at 12 students, and manned by teachers with special education and behavioral certifications. The school has a waitlist and just opened up its seventh class.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quality educators and curriculum were essential to the academy\u2019s founding, said Bryan Boynton, founder of SA Life Academy and father to Drew Boynton, the academy\u2019s first student.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Drew, 31, is the reason Bryan and his wife Cindy founded the academy. After aging out of his local school district\u2019s special education program at 22, Bryan said they couldn\u2019t find a \u201cquality\u201d program to enroll Drew in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So he and Cindy, who has a masters in special education, decided to start their own program in 2017 with just Drew and a handful of his friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did is just kind of round up our friends that were in the same age and same situation we were in,\u201d Bryan said, adding that he never thought the school would grow from an initial eight students to more than 160.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we didn\u2019t foresee the need being as large as it is. This place just mushroomed so unbelievably in the last eight years,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"San Antonio Life Academy student Becca Major calls customers orders out of the Rising Stars Coffee truck on opening day. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, local advocacy group IDD Champions Coalition surveyed 800 families of individuals with learning disabilities, finding a huge gap between caregivers\u2019 needs and the availability of services. <\/p>\n

The study found 32% of caregivers quit their jobs to meet care demands, most felt it was difficult to obtain and maintain a job, and 80% had no plan for an adult care option.<\/p>\n

In San Antonio, more than one million people over the age of 18 report having a cognitive disability or have difficulty living independently, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. <\/p>\n

Continuing the legacy of adult education<\/p>\n

Cindy died last year of pancreatic cancer, but Bryan and the staff of SA Life Academy continue her mission: bringing the world to adults with learning disabilities and taking those same pupils out into the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rising Stars Coffee is sort of a practice run for the academy, which plans to open a gift shop near the school called Cindy\u2019s Cottage in the next few years. Selling baked goods, jewelry and other specialty items, the academy\u2019s hope is that the store offers job opportunities for more of the school\u2019s students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While students at the academy spend a lot of time on the church grounds, taking art, health and other sorts of classes, they also have opportunities to practice their skills in real world settings: visiting libraries, museums, gyms and coffee shops.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kris Clark chairs the board for SA Life Academy and has been with the program since its inception. Her son William Bissmeyar, 28, made the lemonade for the coffee truck\u2019s launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"San Antonio Life Academy students Eliza Mills and Heather Miller pose for a picture while passing out complimentary muffins for customers of the Rising Stars Coffee truck on opening day outside of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church on Sept. 24, 2025. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Unlike in traditional school districts, students at SA Life Academy don\u2019t age out of eligibility to enroll.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bissmeyar, who has Down syndrome, also works part-time in dining services at the University of the Incarnate World. He stopped by the launch event before catching his shift at the school, and said one of his favorite parts of the academy is meeting new people and making new friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s cool and it\u2019s a fun place to be and to work hard,\u201d Bissmeyar said about the coffee truck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those needing a hit of caffeine or a baked good in the morning, can drop by the coffee truck on 308 Mount Calvary Drive from 8:30-10:30 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An iced vanilla latte with whole milk, a caramel macchiato and a regular black with no sugar \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85,86,87,88,89,82,84,90,83,91,92,93,94],"class_list":{"0":"post-60","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-adults-with-learning-disabilities","9":"tag-alamo-heights","10":"tag-idd-champions-coalition","11":"tag-mount-cavalry-lutheran-church","12":"tag-sa-life-academy","13":"tag-san-antonio","14":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","15":"tag-san-antonio-life-academy","16":"tag-san-antonio-news","17":"tag-special-education","18":"tag-top-story","19":"tag-typefeature","20":"tag-wc-750-1000"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}