This guest post is by Jennica Campbell, a young woman on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with ASD at age 4 and attends Sprott Shaw College. Jennica 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.
This upcoming January I am enrolled in a Registered Professional Counseling Diploma Program. This is a program which I have a passion for and can relate to the mental health aspect, as I have dealt with my own mental health struggles in the past. I hope by completing this program I can help others lessen the weight of their struggles and give them tools to navigating through tough times.
My previous college experience allowed me to become an Education Assistant and work with amazing mentors and children who have impacted my life and have shown me how much I can impact theirs. During my previous college experience I was working six days a week, volunteering at a mental health center and providing respite care to children with disabilities. I feel that with my work ethic and passion to create change for the mental health system this program would be a great fit. This funding would allow me to focus on school and volunteering, without the worry of financial stress, which would be detrimental to my career path.
My current career has given me the opportunity to see the struggles others are facing and try to help make their day, week a bit better. Even though I will never understand what it is like living in the schools of children, adults with behavioral and developmental disabilities. My job has given me so many amazing opportunities to provide support for others and work together to help them navigate a challenge they are facing. I have a great appreciation for working with others and learning from their experiences to better myself and the work that I am doing in my own life and community. I am excited to embark on this new career path and I hope to make an impact on others and create a safe space for others to be able to be their true self without feeling judged or misheard.
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 that 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 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.
