Nebraska Transition Conference

They said I would never go to college, never play sports, would grow up to live in a group home. I was bullied, for all the ways that I was different than everybody else. But I defied the predictions: Building on the challenges I overcame, I graduated from college and became the first athlete in NCAA history with autism to play Division 1 college basketball.
 
Under legendary coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State University, I played on the 2010 and 2012 Big Ten Championship teams and the 2010 Final Four team. Now, I am is on a mission: to educate and inspire everyone to be “Relentless” and to achieve their dreams and goals in life.
 
In the last two years alone, I have reached 140,000 individuals in more than 200 schools, colleges, camps and summer programs all over the United States. My insights into autism – gained from my own lived experience as a person on the spectrum and more than 5 years of interacting directly with hundreds of thousands of individuals, young and old, on the spectrum and off – provide the basis of my message to families, caregivers, and the entire network of support available to individuals with autism.
 
Four key takeaway messages from my presentation:
 
1)         Your support is central to helping people with autism understand that they can overcome their challenges and obstacles. They can live their own lives and follow their own dreams.
2)         You play a vital role in how well an individual with autism manages significant transitions in life – from elementary school to high school to surviving and thriving in the real world. Helping a young person with autism find and utilize the right tools and resources will help ensure that they make those transitions successfully.
3)         A solid support system, a good network of family, friends and professionals, will help individuals on the spectrum achieve, and often exceed, the expectations they have for themselves and that we all have for them.
4) Hope is essential. My story and the dream I now live will inspire people who are in the middle of this journey. People who are part of the support system for individuals on the spectrum will leave with more hope for their child, their family, or the clients they strive so hard to serve.