This guest post is by Génesis Cintrón, a young woman on the autism spectrum who was accepted and into University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Génesis is applying for the Spring 2025 Making a Difference Autism Scholarship via the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference started by me, Kerry Magro. I was nonverbal till 2.5 and diagnosed with autism at 4 and you can read more about my organization here.
Autistics on Autism the Next Chapter: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams will be released on Amazon on 3/25/25 and looks at the lives over 75 Autistic adults. 100% of the proceeds from this book will go back to supporting our nonprofits many initiatives, like this scholarship program. Check out the book here.
I was in Middle School and One of my Special Ed teachers told me that I wasn’t going to make it through high school because I have a hard time doing something that could be easy for some students, and I sometimes struggle a lot and it frustrates me. Something that made school difficult for me was the distractions, I struggle a lot with explaining what I mean, I get frustrated then I get mad,I stutter a lot when I am explaining. At first I believed her because I knew I had a Learning Disability, Autism and other disability and it was really hard for me to learn. When I am in a class environment I tend to concentrate but I get distracted easily but I have learned to control myself. Then when I got home I told my mom about what the teacher told me and what I thought about and she told me ” Genesis you have to believe in yourself you have to prove to everybody else that just because you learn differently doesn’t mean you can’t do really good at school. You need to prove to your teachers that you can do it”. And what I did to fix it was that I told myself that I can do it no matter what and I started putting in my part to do the best in school with my grades. That’s how I am making it through high school. When my teacher told me that I wasn’t going to make it through high school I felt really sad and angry because she didn’t believe in me that I could really do it, and she made me feel that all the hard work I put in was for nothing. The next day I told the teacher that I was going to prove her wrong. I am going to prove to her that it does not matter if I have a disability, that I could still do it, that I was going to make it through high school. My plans for the future are to study Early Childhood Special Education because I want the students to know that no matter if they have a learning disability that they could still make it through school. What I would do as a Early Childhood Special Educator is tell kids that they can do anything that they like and just because they have a disability doesn’t mean anything. . This Experience will help me in college because I will listen to my parents and if I have a problem I will talk to the teachers. I proved her wrong because she told me that I couldn’t make it through highschool because it was going to be too hard for me but right now I have a 4.0 and my grades are A and B’s. Some things that I changed in my school routine is that I try my best to focus on the teacher and not on other distractions. When I needed help I asked my BFF’s, I talked to my parents, and I talked to my teachers.
Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue a post-secondary education. Help us continue to help students with autism go to college by making a tax-deductible donation to our nonprofit here.
Also, consider having Kerry, one of the only professionally accredited speakers on the spectrum in the country, speak at your next event by sending him an inquiry here. If you have a referral for someone who many want him to speak please reach out as well! Kerry speaks with schools, businesses, government agencies, colleges, nonprofit organizations, parent groups and other special events on topics ranging from employment, how to succeed in college with a learning disability, internal communication, living with autism, bullying prevention, social media best practices, innovation, presentation best practices and much more!
