Print

Walker, Daphne

College of Education and Social Services

2012

M. Ed.

As a career advisor at a small college where I enjoy the privilege ofdeveloping relationships with students, my work life offers meaning to me when I feel that I am making a difference in my advisees' lives. Generally, I feel pretty good about my work and, in most cases, achieve external compliments and internal satisfaction about my interactions with students. Within the past year, however, I began to notice a growing and specific population ofstudents who seemed different from my other advisees. My interactions were not as smooth as to what I was accustomed and certainly not as satisfying. I could not tell if I was reaching these students or giving them the direction they sought. For example, I began to notice that I could not get the students to focus in classroom workshops, while in individual appointments some students might rock, remain silent or talk too much, look at the wall, hyperventilate, or suddenly get up and leave. I began to worry that I was no longer effective with college students.
Eventually, I learned that these students most likely fall on a high functioning level of the autism spectrum called Asperger's Syndrome. Rudy Simone, who wrote Asperger's On The Job, said the differences between those on and off the spectrum are significant enough to be considered cultural. Others have compared people with Asperger's to orphans and foreigners. Authors with Asperger's have said they often feel alien in our social world, and that they need translators and guides to help them with this non-native world ofsocial complexities. To me, they seemed like foreign exchange students and I needed to find a common way to communicate.
I decided to find out everything I could about their world. First, I sought help from within my institution because I was at a loss as how to deliver my usual services. What I found was that most staff and faculty were as baffled as I about these different learners. Therefore, I decided to educate myself about Asperger's and share the infonnation with other educators. Seventh grader Clark Hamm said, "Some people are special. Sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a bad way. Well I'm both. Being smart and somewhat neurotic is confusing. The way I act is weird to others."¹ The deliberation at the heart of my thesis is how I might help students who seem "weird" navigate the social world of networking and interviews, get hired, and find career success. I hope that this document will help even just one other educator deepen his or her understanding of this unique and gifted student population.
Podcast: Hamm, Clark, "Looking through the Eyes of Asperger's Syndrome." www.vpr.net: The Young Writers Project, July 2011.