This guest post is by Jacob Eager, a young man who attends Community College Allegheny County. He is an advocate 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 was 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.
Growing up on the Autism Spectrum, I had to be approached differently than any other
kid would be normally done. I was fidgety, tended to want to move a lot, and didn’t like being told no. At home, I was a nuisance most of the time, and an average day was keeping me from destroying something. On some odd days, I was usually kept complacent by one or two fidget toys, or by sitting in front of the TV watching shows like Spongebob . My parents were and still are super accommodating for me, being kind and
patient, helping me with whatever I needed.
When I was in Kindergarten at my old school, Perry Hill, the teachers were less than
accommodating. I was given fidget toys, and sat in the back of the room, because I usually
completed my work ahead of time and had a lot of free time, which the teachers did not like. They wanted me to engage with other students, but because of my solitary nature at the time, I didn’t do that and just did the work on my own. I was given access to a specific sensory room, but I found myself unable to access it when I felt overwhelmed, which my parents weren’t happy about.
My mom had told the staff of the school they were not supposed to corner me if we were to get into a disagreement, but they didn’t follow that. One time, they had cornered me in a classroom, causing me to climb a bookshelf to escape. Another incident was me taking an ice cube from an ice tray and sucking on it, causing the lunch ladies to try and get it back from me,
only to corner me underneath a lunch table, where I proceeded to bite one of the lunch ladies on the ankle.
When my mom found out, she was beyond angry, and pulled me out of the school to
homeschool me, because the teachers weren’t willing to properly discipline me without setting me off on a tantrum. Since then, I was homeschooled for a few years and then I did an online public charter school until High School. But for me, online school wasn’t much easier, as I was at home most of the time and it was difficult to focus. I used a personal computer to work which caused me to get on games and off topic fairy often, much to the chagrin of my mother as she was in trying to keep me on task. I was in online school for far longer than public school. I still don’t remember much of it as it was extremely boring and not that fun to do.
After eighth grade my mom asked me if I was interested in going to public school again for my high school years and I accepted. At first, I was uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure if I would fit in or if I would make any friends. I decided instead of worrying about all that, I decided to smile, wave and introduce myself to everyone I met in school, and to my surprise I actually found myself fitting in a lot better than I thought. I enjoyed the classes even the assignments were fun and the lunches at school were surprisingly good, thankfully.
My first year I tried out for the baseball team, unfortunately I didn’t get it. My second year, I mellowed down to select a bunch of friends that were extremely fun to hang around with. My junior year I found myself being asked to run Chromebook Corner which is a help space where a partner and I got to work on solving people’s Chromebook issues like unresponsive mouse, or broken keyboard. I feel like these moments are extremely defining to me as a person, and I enjoyed public school, which is why I wish to go to public college. I am hopeful and believe that many classmates and roommates I find will be accommodating, and that is one of the reasons why I am looking forward to college.
My greatest accomplishment since then has been achieving my second degree black belt in karate. It took several years of work to reach my first degree, and it took two more to get my second. Getting my black belt required much discipline in going to class every day, and physical knowledge to perform the moves and forms correctly. This is a major point in my life because it gives my pride knowing I managed to get this far in the program.
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!
