This guest post is by Andres Castillo, a young man on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with ASD at age 3 and plans to attend the University of Central Florida. Andres 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.
I grew up with my family from Puerto Rico on my mom’s side and my stepfamily from Colombia on my stepdad’s side. However, I did not see my family from Puerto Rico on my biological dad’s side too often. However, I did not grow up with my family from Puerto Rico on my birth dad’s side. I am Ortiz from the bottom of my stepfamily’s heart. I was very excited to get my high school diploma. I felt emotional because I was glad that my high school graduation was over. Autism has been a challenge for me, but thank God I learned to live with it as a young adult. I used not to feel belonging for my condition, but now I do.
I graduated from grade school in a special program. I took a small bus throughout my school years in the states. I went to Boys Scouts with special needs students in sixth grade. After Thanksgiving, I went out because it was not for me. I was a Boys and Girls Club member from seventh through ninth grade. In tenth grade, I was a member of the Spanish club. In my senior year, I was a member of the National Honor Society.
I have been studying at a community college for seven years. Next year in the fall semester of 2023, it will be my first-time attending university, but my eighth time attending college. Sometimes taking college courses online is challenging for me. Since the pandemic started last year in March, I could not return to campus. I visited my family on my mom’s side and my stepfamily on my stepdad’s side in Texas during Christmas after the pandemic had started. My overall college GPA will be a 3.1 out of 4.0 scale once this fall semester is over, and my college cumulative GPA will be a 3.35 out of 4.0 scale. The fall semester of 2021 was my first time being on the Dean’s List from a community college. The spring semester of 2022 was my second time on the Dean’s List from a community college. During the fall of the 2023 semester, I will be in an internship program for journalism/communication at the University of Central Florida. That is why I am taking a journalism course related to face-to-face from Valencia College. In my third year as a first-year student at a community college, I was in the Math Honor Society for being a math club member for two years in May 2019.
My educational goals are to earn my associate’s degree in liberal arts and my bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. Sooner or later, once I have my bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism, I will be working on my master’s degree in film television and creative writing at 30. My career goals are to be an actor, write songs in Spanish, news-report, broadcast, and be an author. I want to sing and write my songs because I want to work on television, and I want to be someone in life in the industry of music. Additionally, it helps me to travel all over the world. I will get to meet new people everywhere and visit many countries. It is my dream to be famous. In high school, I had no income due to my autism, and I had to move to every state because of my dad’s job in the armed forces. Therefore, I could not have a chance to make money because I had to focus on my education in eight different states and one Hispanic country. I had been through many changes at school due to my moving experiences and my condition of autism. However, my condition has not stopped me from getting a better education, and my parents always taught me that it is okay to be different and achieve and work for my dreams. I will be attending a TV school to learn about a job in the music and acting industry to earn my certificate in the music and acting industry next year in the summer.
Hopefully, this summer of 2023, I will find a way to get training for acting. If I can earn money from a scholarship to pay for my tuition, that will help me to go up one more step to obtain my education and graduate from Valencia. I received Pell Grant for good grades from last year in 2021-22. We have recently lived in the state of Florida for three years, and that has not been easy to secure money to pay for my tuition and books that I will need for my courses. All my expectations are on the scholarships to achieve my goals and dreams and show the world that people with conditions or without conditions can be successful in life.
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.
