Autism Ambassadors

Vital Stats

Zachary K

Short Hills, NJ

  • people helped7500
  • People Doing It 250

The Problem

Autism Ambassadors focuses on two main problems. The first issue is that typical, everyday students do not know how to react to a peer that is atypical. Even if students wanted to interact with that student peer, they do not know how to do it. The second problem is that students with autism feel very isolated from school events such as social dances, study groups, lunch time, recess, and after school clubs, to name a few. With one out of every 150 kids getting diagnosed with autism, and according to Autism Speaks a child getting diagnosed with Autism every 20 minutes, more and more students are entering a school environment and facing this problem. All students need a curriculum to help them understand and develop genuine relationships with students with Autism.

Plan of Action

I wrote a curriculum that teaches typical students how to interact with and understand atypical students. I would like to take this curriculum into as many schools as possible by training different groups of students. These students will continue to help others by training more students at their institutions, spreading tolerance and understanding in schools all over the country. So far, I have spread from my school to Rutgers University and Stamford High School in Connecticut. The students there use the Autism Ambassadors curriculum to train other students to work with their disabled student body. Training is completely free and can even be done online, so volunteering is all about having a drive to help others and to understand students who are different from you to help your school and community.
Go
Discrimination
Education
Physical and Mental Health
Bullying and Violence

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