SEATTLE — As she chops carrots in a cooking class, Colleen McMurry sees the bigger picture.
She is putting together the ingredients for a fulfilling life.
"I like anything with cooking," McMurry said. "It's an important thing to know how to do."
McMurry dreams of one day working in an Italian restaurant. She's doing all she can to make that dream a reality regardless of her Down Syndrome diagnosis.
"The disability of Down Syndrome doesn't define me as a person," McMurry said. "It doesn't keep me from doing the things I love to do."
McMurry attends the nonprofit Summit Community Center in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
The center teaches those with intellectual and developmental disabilities the skills they need to succeed in the mainstream world. Everything from cooking to computer, communication and life skills. There is a gym and a plush patio with pool tables and cornhole overlooking Cal Anderson Park.
Mostly, it's a place where folks ages 18 to 35 can just come and be themselves.
"It's very community-centered, which I love," McMurry said. "It's fun to be around people who understand what you go through day to day."
The place was created by a group of families who realized there is not a place where people with these kinds of disabilities can continue to grow once they leave high school.
About 6.5 million Americans live with an intellectual disability.
Summit is now celebrating its first anniversary. The center has helped 250 people.
"It's wonderful to see people who often have to mask a part of themselves be able to be their true selves," said Alicia Nathan, Summit Community Center executive director. "They can be goofy. They can have fun. They can even have hard times and no one is going to judge them."
McMurry considers the friends she has made at Summit an extended family.
As she follows her dream of that Italian restaurant, McMurry knows that at Summit she has found a recipe for success.
"Coming here you just feel welcome and you feel loved every day," McMurry said. "For anybody with a disability, it's a great community that just loves you for you."