Asperger's and Autism: Achieving Independence After High School

Last week, we held our 2nd Annual Shark Tank event. We were privileged to have four very knowledgeable and successful individuals from the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds who listened to each of the presentations made by Hill Top students. Each of these judges brought their attention, their enthusiasm, their passion and their encouragement to the judge's table. While each of the judges were thoughtful enough to send us warm and glowing emails about how impressed they were with not only the student presenters but the general student body as well as the community of faculty and parents that took part in the event. However, Al Chiaradonna, who is the Senior VP of Private Banking at SEI Corporation, wrote a piece in his company blog. He shared it with us. The focus of what he wrote is not just about his experience at Hill Top but also about the influence it has had in his revisiting the topic of neurodiversity in the workplace. He essentially challenges his colleagues to loo...

This was a very interesting visit to a program that just opened up in their new home last spring. As an outgrowth of programming that has been happening for many years on the campus of Valley Forge Educational Services and The Vanguard School , Customized Workforce Solutions is a program being offered to individuals who are not only coming from Vanguard School but from a growing number of school districts in the area. I met with Holly Zipperer who is the Director of Career and Community and Engagement Services and Sascha Baello who is the Site Supervisor of Customized Workforce Solutions.  Their offices are not on the campus but located at 5 Station Ave. in Berwyn and directly across from the train station. CWS offers employment services to young adults once they have finished high school with the discovery process, finding a job and then support once the individual has been hired. They also offer social events and some overnight experiences such as renting a house do...

For the past several years I have enjoyed being a member of the Advisory Board at Drexel University for their DASP program ( Drexel Autism Support Program ).  As one of the only members on this Board from outside the university, I enjoy contributing to the conversation with information from our school, our faculty and our families.  It is also time well spent when I learn about research that is going on at the Drexel Autism Institute , hear about new ways that Drexel is working with its neuro-diverse students, and meet really bright, talented and enthusiastic folks who want to create new opportunities for students like those at Hill Top as they head out into the world. One of the board members is Korbin. He is currently a Master's level student at Drexel in the College of Laboratory Animal Science. Not only does he bring the perspective of living on the spectrum to the Advisory Board but he also is the founding President of Drexel's own Neurodragons.  This is an or...

This week I was involved with an interesting visit to a program merely 2 miles down the road from Hill Top Prep.  Carousel Connections  was created in 2012 by Amy and Chris McCann as "a community of support that walks alongside families as they journey across stages of development." Mainly, this is a summer program of up to six weeks in length.  Families can sign up their young adult to participate for 2 weeks or 4 weeks or all 6 weeks.  Located on the campus of Haverford College during the summer, Carousel Connections provides independent living experiences during the summer but has also grown into offering weekend adventures in which summer participants can sign up to travel together to places such as the Poconos during the Fall and Winter months. They also work on community building and employment opportunities through community service projects as well as supported and customized employment experiences.  Lastly, they work on thinking ahead ...

One of my objectives for this sabbatical is to learn about resources that are in our area for young adults in their 20’s who have an average to above average IQ and have Asperger’s, complex learning disabilities or are on the high end of the autism spectrum.  I am doing this by meeting with lots of new people and revisiting with long time friends who are interested in this project and can share their ideas and insights with me. Connecting with folks began this summer.   Through a wonderful pair of women with a company called Evolve Advisors who have been hired by Hill Top to assist with our fund-raising I was introduced to a gentleman named Michael Rouse.   If folks don’t know Michael, they are likely familiar with his company, ESF Summer Camps. It turns out that Michael and his wife are interested to learn more about autism spectrum disorders.   So, we began to get to know each other this summer. In one of our conversations, Michael suggested that I m...