ASAN ACI Speech

This speech I wrote for my GS 1003 class. The time I would have taken to work on the majority of this speech, I was taking a trip to St. Louis for my uncle's funeral and I had a double ear infection the whole time where both my ears were full of so much fluid. This combination eventually lead to mental duress too.

Anyway, the purpose of this speech was to find an organization and explain why you'd be a good pick for a project they were doing. At a loss for a good topic, I did something about autism again. But autism at the college level!

Greetings. My name is Debra Nygren, and I would be a fantastic addition to the Autism Campus Inclusion program. Together we can empower autistic college students to advocate for themselves and give them the tools to succeed. I want to make the world a better place for autistic people and will bring my passion to the program.

I fully believe in the Autism Self Advocacy Network’s mission: nothing about us without us. I was diagnosed when I was 12, although my family suspected it long before as my father is also autistic.

Being able to relate to the students enrolled in the program is important. It will help them feel more comfortable and will increase the chances of them enjoying the program.

Additionally, I am currently a college student and will be able to share my own personal tips and tricks to help the students to feel empowered and in control of their education. From my personal experience, talking to someone who is similar to you in background, interests and age is easier than someone who isn’t.

This is why I would be a good addition to your team.

The purpose of the ACI program is to teach students how to create a campaign to advocate for disabled students at their college. Now, I am able to get up and speak to you about this, which can sometimes be difficult for someone with autism. Of course, I had to work on this, but now I’m pretty confident in my abilities to advocate for myself and to be pretty persuasive.

By adding me to your team, I will be able to relay my experiences in advocating for myself and together we can give autistic college students the tools to succeed in college academically and socially.

Part of the ACI program is workshops on how to organize meetings, create a campaign strategy and build relationships based on intersectionality. I have experience doing this sort of stuff. I was practically a student lead on my robotics team in high school, and I learned how to coordinate work that needed to be done.

MY work on the robotics team was integral to our success as during my time on the team we won the most prestigious award - twice. Because my work in coordinating on what needed to be displayed in material given to judges helped us to win, I like to think I know what I’m talking about.

I know for sure that if I had the chance to talk to an autistic college student when I was leaving high school, I would have had way more confidence going into my first year in college. Adding me to your team will give that experience that I wanted to a new wave of students.

Being able to build relationships based on intersectionality is important, and a great way to get to know people. I only figured this skill out recently, but I believe that your ACI program teaching this skill to autistic college students will give them tools to succeed academically and socially.

Making friends is often difficult for autistic people, and by finding common interests will help the students gain friends to support their advocacy campaigns at their schools.

Unfortunately, as you may know, autistic people don’t often get the chance to have their voices heard on discussions regarding them, and by having a more diverse pool of support will give campaigns a better shot at being successful. Together we can help these students to create a successful campaign.

ASAN’s mission is to empower autistic people across the world to take control of our own lives and the future of our common community. There was a time that I didn’t like to advertise that I am autistic in any capacity.

I didn’t have any noteworthy or positive experiences with autism awareness until I took the initiative to look for myself and gained the confidence to advocate for myself. I like to think it starts with baby steps, convincing yourself of the fact that it’s okay to be autistic.

I believe that being proud to be genuine to myself as an autistic person will help show other autistic people that they can be successful and be proud of themselves too.

I had to learn to advocate for myself and am still learning the finer details, but with me on your team, we can help autistic college students self-advocate for themselves as young adults.

Adding me to the ACI team will give the students enrolled in the program a chance to relate to a mentor figure, someone who is similar to them in age and neurotype. My experiences being a college student with autism in this age will bring helpful insight to the program.

Together we can empower autistic college students to advocate for themselves in their education and give them the tools to succeed in college academically and socially.