This guest post is by Jaykob Anstaett, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with autism at 5 years of age and attends Defiance College. Jaykob is applying for the Spring 2023 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: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams, our nonprofit’s new book, was released on March 29, 2022, on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
My name is Jaykob Anstaett and my future educational goal is to get a bachelor’s degree in sports management and a minor in music and history. My career goal is to become a sports analyst and a Minister of Music. I am currently in my freshman year at Defiance College. After 4 years, I plan to get my Bachelor’s degree, and apply for sports analyst jobs and minister of music jobs that are available.
I love all things pertaining to music. I danced for eleven years taking tap, ballet, jazz, and hip hop. I have played the trombone for seven years now. I have also sung in the choir during those same seven years. I currently play in the Honors Symphonic Band and sing in the Symphonic Choir and Chamber Choir. I took three months of keyboarding lessons that were ended due to the pandemic, but I have been working on trying to teach myself how to play since then. I plan on continuing to learn keyboarding in college. I did several camps during the summers that were drama camps and have performed in skits and plays. I am very active in my youth group at church. I have been part of the teen praise team, drama team, and helped plan a youth lock-in. I have been a counselor at a Special Needs summer camp at church and helped plan activities for the campers to participate in. I have participated in several Habitat for Humanity House Builds. I have also been on two mission trips with my youth group. I am looking to have a career that encompasses both my love of music and my love for the church. I have worked very hard in high school to maintain high grades. I have worked very hard to be able to graduate in four years from high school and will be doing that with honors. I currently have a weighted Cumulative GPA of 3.9381 in college.
I have had to overcome many obstacles with my Autism diagnosis. I have been through counseling services and had many different kinds of medications tried to help me be able to function better. I have had to attend specialized education programs, as the schools that I was attending were not able to help me express myself when I became frustrated. I was that individual in class that was always blamed when something went wrong. I have had to find many different ways to cope in life as medication management usually did not respond in my body the way that the doctor expected. I have learned to use music, sensory tools, and learning to advocate for myself to be able to best help me with my struggles with my Autism. I have been in speech, received OT services, and took dance for eleven years to learn how to use both sides of my body while doing activities. I have had to learn what the best way for me to learn is and continue to challenge myself to reach for the next level. An obstacle that I have overcome with education was my diagnosis of Autism. I had an issue where my brain would run very fast and I would not be able to write down what I’m thinking quickly enough before my brain would move on to the next thing. It took me a few years to get used to being able to do assignments properly.
I have grown so much this year so far. Defiance College is about two hours away from my home. I did not know anyone else that would be attending there. This was my first attempt at being away from home other than attending camps and mission trips while in middle school and high school. One thing that was different about this though is that I always had someone else staying in the same space as me. I am part of a program at Defiance College called the Affinity Program. They help me with things like executive functioning skills to help me organize my assignments and ensure that I get them done on time. I live in a dorm apartment with one other individual. We each have a bedroom but share a kitchen and bathroom. One big difference is that my roommate is a senior and his family lives nearby, so he does not always stay on campus. I had to learn that it was okay to stay in my own space by myself, especially overnight. I have had to practice skills that my parents helped me develop for cooking simple meals in the microwave- and doing my laundry. I do not drive, so I have had to learn to walk where I need to go or ask someone to take me somewhere. This is a huge step for me, as engaging in this type of conversation is very difficult for me with my disability. I have also had to learn to step out of my comfort zone to get involved in activities. I was working on this goal and making strides when the pandemic hit. That caused my anxiety to go up and set me back in my progress. I still struggle sometimes with being around larger groups of people. I have started to participate in some activities on campus outside of my classes. I am working very hard to increase my involvement in activities on campus to fully embrace college life. While I do have assistance with my executive functioning skills at college, I am just like every other college student there, unlike the specialized classes that I had in high school.
My parents, band director, and choir director were instrumental in fostering my love for music and encouraging me to allow music to influence my life for the better when I was facing challenges. I was able to learn that music had a positive impact on my life. I want to be able to help others discover the positive impact that music can have on their lives.
Follow my journey on Facebook, my Facebook Fan Page, Tiktok, Youtube & Instagram.
My name is Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum. I started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue post-secondary education. Help support me so I can continue to help students with autism go to college by making a tax-deductible donation to our nonprofit here.
Autistics on Autism: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams was released on March 29, 2022 on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults. 100% of the proceeds from this book will go back to our nonprofit to support initiatives like our autism scholarship program. In addition, this autistic adult’s essay you just read will be featured in a future volume of this book as we plan on making this into a series of books on autistic adults.
