All right, welcome back, specifically competitive Pokemon players, but really

0:07

all honored guests, um, to the second half of our live show taping here at the

0:13

beautiful Tamkin Theater at UCLA. I’m with Danny Wen, a thirdyear UCLA

0:20

student. He is majoring in neuroscience, and his major choice is actually a part

0:25

of his story. So, we’ll get right to the conversation to hear about how Danny ended up in neuroscience. Thank you for

0:31

being here and for sharing your story. So glad to be so glad to be here. Thanks

0:37

so much. Yeah. So, like Jenny, you are a transfer student to UCLA and I have

0:45

heard through the grapevine that you came in as a psych major but now are in

0:50

neuroscience. How did you slide from psych to neuroscience?

0:57

Um, great question. Is this working? Yeah, you’re good. You’re good, man. Uh,

1:03

so I was an ABA therapist, which to many of you guys is a is a traumatic thing to

1:10

say, an activating statement perhaps. Oh my gosh, that crowd.

1:18

Um so I kind of had these experiences with uh psychology and kind of I felt

1:24

this antagonizing sense that uh in psychology at least in the in the

1:30

practical clinical setting we tend to uh overcategorize people’s emotions and

1:37

individual experiences and that kind of like reduces them and then also they’re subjugated to

1:44

miscatategorization and I I didn’t really appreciate this top down kind of thinking of people or view of people

1:50

because I think people are so much more complex than that especially within the uh the mental health field or world.

1:59

Yeah. Um a trauma-informed perspective tells us that likely those things did not occur in a vacuum. Yeah. Okay. So,

2:06

so you switched to neuroscience. Has that felt less uh reductive for you?

2:13

Yeah. I I appreciate seeing things um parsing things from the individual

2:19

biological perspective because it’s hard you can’t really discriminate a neuron and you can’t really misunderstand a

2:26

neuron as you would in an ABA setting. Yeah. And I can see how just from my

2:32

understanding of autistic learning styles, the bottomup way of understanding the brain might be just

2:40

more intuitive and also more true. So, rewinding a bit, uh, did you always aspire to UCLA or how did you choose

2:46

this school? Um, well, I I’m from the Bay and the two

2:52

schools that took me were Berkeley and UCLA, obviously. Um, I wanted to see

2:59

that there. Good going. I did not like the Bay Area, so I wanted

3:04

to go as far as way as I could from the Bay Area. Okay, valid. Um, and well, there’s only one other

3:11

option, so that’s why I’m here. Did you I’m I’m processing because I feel like

3:17

you alleged that there are two places in the world, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and I’m from the third place in

3:23

the world, Boston, which is actually heaven. Anyway, um, so but so you chose

3:30

UCLA because it wasn’t in the Bay Area. And did you begin your college career here?

3:36

No, I I began in the Bay Area. I was a I was a uh community college student just

3:42

like Lauren. Um yeah, sorry, just like Jennifer. Yeah. And uh kind of was there

3:48

for three and a half years. Got it. And how was community college?

3:54

The first two years were uh fine because it was the pandemic. I have to interact

3:59

with anyone. Uh but actually I overall I actually really liked my community college

4:05

experience just because um smaller class rooms and you get a one-on-one kind of

4:12

um relationship with your professors and they kind of see who who you are as a person. You aren’t a uh a number and

4:19

they kind of see your circumstances. So even before my understanding um with my experience with uh neurodyiversity um

4:27

they kind of saw me as a person and kind of understood my challenges and so that

4:34

definitely helped um navigate academics. Yeah. And for the podcast listeners at

4:39

home who cannot hear Danny’s face, the face he made when I asked him about community college was like a half smile

4:46

half brown emoji. Um yeah. So you were at community college primarily during

4:52

the pandemic. Was that when you were working as an ABA therapist? Uh that was

4:58

so ABA therapy was um uh after Oh I see. Cool. So um how

5:06

did that experience working in the ABA space go for you? Uh was it a job that you found you were good at? Did you like

5:13

it? You can admit that if you did this is a safe space. Well, I was underpaid

5:19

first of all. I was providing therapy to kids on the spectrum obviously. Yes. Um, and very

5:27

early on, I can kind of sense this qual I had with the nature of the work I was

5:32

doing. Uh, specifically because of the way that their behaviors were

5:38

approached. M um there was kind of like a set norm of what was expected of behavior and anything that deviated from

5:44

that behavior was more often than not pathologicized. Uh for example um one of my kids my my

5:52

favorite kid if I can uh he was he had oppositional divine disorder and

5:59

um first of all I don’t think this exists but secondly um the nature that

6:05

this was of how this was diagnosed was I very much disagree with because I

6:11

believe that he had a past well he did have a past of many many ABA therapists and over the course of this ABA therapy,

6:18

he became more and more opposition oppositionally defined. And if you just

6:24

took a minute to kind of just listen and understand him and try to have and

6:30

actually see him as a a person, a six-year-old boy, you would see that he doesn’t have oppositional defiant

6:37

disorder. He just has a history of not being listened to. And this is a very

6:42

human response to feeling misheard for such a long time. And especially when

6:47

you have a uh challenges with communication, then of course this will

6:53

present itself in ways that may seem maladapted and easy to be

6:58

pathologicized. Yeah, I I see. And so what from one perspective, this is a

7:04

child with the label OD. And from another perspective, this is a child who’s traumatized and rightfully doesn’t

7:11

trust the relational partners in the therapist because the therapists are manipulating his behavior. Uh I get

7:17

that. So when you were working in ABA, did you understand yourself to be neurode divergent yet?

7:24

No. Okay. So, how did that come about? Um, from

7:30

working with autistic people to becoming autistic people.

7:36

Um, yeah, that’s that’s something I’m still navigating right now. I mean, I

7:41

was only diagnosed a month ago. Oh. So, I don’t really have like a chronology of like, you know, Yeah. me finally coming

7:49

to terms of what it means to be autistic because I I barely know that I’m autistic. Okay. So, it’s Yeah.

7:55

Well, welcome. Um, your, uh, certificate is in the mail.

8:01

Um, so with all that in mind, you’re here at UCLA now studying neuroscience. Um, how’s the transfer

8:10

living situation? Did you move to campus when you came to uh, the LA area? Yeah.

8:16

Um, so my first mistake transferring here was uh, electing to live in the

8:21

eight person. Uh that’s a lot of person people apartment um and it was a big

8:29

adjustment. This is the first time I was living with other people and not one other person but seven other people I

8:36

can see really multiplying the potential for roommate conflict, right? Yeah, for

8:43

sure. Okay. Um are you still or was that last year and are you still living in an

8:49

eightman suite? Definitely not. Okay. Um what about now? Is it is it did you

8:55

find something that suited you more? Yeah, so last quarter um I actually experienced a whole lot of

9:02

um well my roommates didn’t maybe appreciate my differences or maybe they

9:08

kind of sensed that something was a little bit off about me um socially and the way that I communicated um kind of

9:14

my ideas and stuff like that. And this kind of led to like some like a lot of

9:20

bull bullying in my apartment. And um it got to a point where I was kind of sick

9:25

of it. So I just actually last quarter like there was a time where actually when I actually stayed at Powell Library

9:32

for like a certain amount of time. Yeah. You kind of moved in to avoid the the drama from the roommates. Yeah. That was

9:39

beautiful. I hear you. You know I’m making it sound horrible, but it wasn’t that. It was No, I I I mean, not bad. I

9:46

don’t I I would not judge. Um they have nice nice facilities for sure. Yeah,

9:52

I’ve used them all. Um but current but current but since then

9:59

I’m so grateful to have friends and support within my uh my circle and we

10:04

managed to uh move to a different place. Now I’m off campus. Yeah. Do you have

10:09

fewer people that you’re sharing space with now? Uh yes. Yes. And I’m also

10:15

living with my one of my closest friends. Also um one thing it’s how I

10:21

actually encountered the DNC. So while I was at how Library um

10:27

certainly not living there during my stay there

10:33

um I would frequently kind of wander campus to kind of find places where I can sit down and not appear to be living

10:40

in the library. appear to be living in the library wearing the same thing for three days. Um

10:46

uh and kind of just find that safe place. Yeah, absolutely. I eventually encountered Rice Center, you know, which

10:52

I thought was just a basement somewhere, but actually it turns Well, it is a basement. No, it’s it is in the

10:57

basement. That’s true. But it turns out to be just this amazing lively community. And one day I was just kind

11:03

of sitting in the corner and um I encountered Ryan and and um Lauren and

11:09

Etau and I just hear them over I overheard them talking of them talking

11:15

about ABA therapy. And so naturally I came in because um he

11:21

overheard them analyzing the pros and cons of ABA therapy.

11:27

And so naturally I uh I joined the conversation and I learned about the BNC

11:32

and the very next week I I joined the club and I’ve been a member since then.

11:38

Yeah. Okay. And so it sounds like that happened before you got your diagnosis

11:46

last month. Was there like a a pathway from joining BNC and getting linked up

11:52

with those folks to getting your diagnostic appointment? Yeah. Um so

11:57

during last quarter uh I was referred to CAPS to kind of um um figure out my

12:04

situation and they you know as you know CAPS is a therapy service at UCLA and we

12:10

kind of talked about my therapist is so great. um she began probing about you know my childhood and how um I grew up

12:17

and how I saw the world and she was very curious about me and for the first time

12:22

I finally began to feel that I was being seen in context and after multiple

12:28

sessions over the quarter she she kind of um led with the conclusion with the diagnosis that I had autism. Yeah, I

12:36

see. Um, and you’ve had a month to process. You’re continuing to, you know,

12:43

do your major. Is it feeling different now that you know you’re autistic?

12:51

Knowing that I am autistic. Um, I I find it to be a very

12:58

experiential thing. I don’t see it as like a thing to be pathologicized.

13:05

Um, and when you begin to see things outside the scope of being, you

13:12

know, this clinical thing, you stop seeing yourself as a set of symptoms.

13:18

You begin to see yourself as more so um a set of experiences and things that uh

13:25

are not okay with you and um are okay with you. And this presented itself as u

13:31

me learning about over stimulation which I previously had framed as a symptom of

13:37

some illness that I must have had. But now I just actually see it as my body telling me that, you know, I like

13:43

certain things and I’m okay with being in certain situations and I don’t like being in certain situations. Yeah. Okay.

13:51

And so you’re able to take steps now um to combat the over stimulation and to to

13:57

manage the situations that are better and maybe to some degree avoid the situations that are hardest.

14:03

Okay. Um so that’s all fascinating. And

14:10

you were able to get your diagnosis at uh CAPS? Uh yes. Um, officially, uh, I would have

14:18

to go off-campus, but the the therapist at CAPS provisionally diagnosed me with

14:23

autistic. See, it’s great to know that there are multiple routes to, um,

14:30

getting that information about yourself. Uh, because increasing access is critical. Um, and it sounds like you’ve

14:37

been able to take some good steps in terms of your experiential

14:43

um, identification since then. Um, so

14:48

what did the diagnosis come as a surprise to you having worked with autistic kids?

14:57

No. And that’s because um, my therapist kind of, what’s the word for it?

15:03

provided like she began to drop hints that she suspected I was neuro divergent. I see. Um I guess it became

15:10

obvious when she started referring me to a autistic social brain just before she touched us. Yeah. So I when she formally

15:17

diagnosed me um it was not a surprise. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks

15:23

Danny. Um, we’re going to, I think, transition

15:29

to a Q&A period of the podcast now. So, I want to invite our other guests back

15:36

up onto the stage. And I also, no pressure, sit tight, Danny. Uh, no

15:41

pressure, but we do have several of the stars of the film in the audience. I know GMA wants to join us on stage. Um,

15:47

but, uh, Desmond and Anella, if you want to come, you’re welcome. If you are not feeling like you want to be put on the spot, that’s totally fine. But for those

15:54

of you that are on the Q&A panel, please take this opportunity to join us on stage. Okay. Um, hi everyone. My name is

16:00

Na Lopez and I wanted to say thank you all for presenting um today. Um I think

16:08

one of the questions I want to ask each of you is that um um how did community

16:16

look like to in all of you individually and how can you say it in a

16:21

few words so I don’t have to complicate things.

16:26

It was an anime club for me so pretty much. But it came to a place

16:34

where I went to it and I first thought, “Oh, dear lord, I am about to flounder

16:39

this. I am about to just alienate every single person here.” And literally

16:46

someone said, “Dude, you had a better redemption arc than Prince.”

16:52

I just started riding bikes with a bunch of old guys in my town and became my

16:57

friends. Yep. Uh for me I think for

17:05

me I was u for me I think uh I did a lot of theater so there was a lot of

17:11

different types of clubs and um it that really helps because you did a lot of

17:16

things with the same people and I feel like there’s a community with the autism goes to college thing as well and some

17:21

of the events that get held here and there’s a bit of a community with that as well which is really nice.

17:27

Who are you again? They were in the film together for those of you that haven’t seen it.

17:39

Oh, I think it was actually my friend Mo’Nique. Uh, she’s also autistic and

17:46

like she was saying that she was autistic and like that she has like certain traits and I was like, “Wait, me

17:53

too.” And I was like, “Wait.” I was like, “Oh, actually, we understand each other very well.”

18:01

Uh, I’ve been part of several communities, I’d say, in my life growing up. I think a notable one was my

18:07

basketball teams because I played competitive basketball from when I was eight until high school. However, I

18:14

genuinely feel like BNC is the first time I’ve had a community where I felt completely comfortable and completely

18:19

myself. And I feel like not only was that great on its own, but it’s kind of

18:24

given me the skills to learn how to be myself in other communities, too.

18:30

Yeah. Uh I think I’m a bit older than most of the people on stage here, and I

18:36

will say that I did not feel a sense of neurody diverent community when I was in undergraduate or in high school. I

18:41

graduated college in 2012 for reference. I started to really I mean, I had team

18:47

sports and it was a great stop gap. Um, a lot of the friends that are still in my life are from either competitive

18:52

skiing or fencing or sailing. Um, individual sports that still have a team

18:59

environment tend to really work well for us anecdotally. That said, I felt autistic

19:06

community when I became a teacher and I started having to work intensively with

19:11

younger students who had IEPs and I just was weirdly good at it. I had a strange

19:18

knack that nobody could understand to understanding these kids and eventually somebody was like do you think you

19:25

understand them because you are them and I was like no but you know but obviously I

19:30

eventually came around got reassessed found out that I had been diagnosed in childhood and they didn’t tell me you

19:37

know one thing led to another but um community has grown for the better as

19:42

awareness has changed and I genuinely think that people are afraid of what we

19:49

can do when we find each other, grow together, and build community. Um,

19:54

Danny, you want to go ahead?

19:59

Um, when I struggle to like have a community in person, I always fell on

20:05

this like virtual community of like this group of friends that I met on Roblox like 13 years ago. It’s honestly

20:11

shocking that none of us mentioned the internet until you. Yeah. So, we we’ve been keeping in touch for 13 years and

20:18

um we’ve met up and everything. It’s we’ve been we’ve watched each other uh grow and it’s it’s been amazing. You’re

20:24

not the only one. I actually have a friend I met on Roblox. Uh he lives in Canada, but I’ve known him since like

20:32

middle school and we we still talk to this day. So, I know how it is, you know, connecting with some people on the

20:38

internet. Cool beans. Thank you. You’re welcome.

20:45

Are there other Yeah. Oh, hi. Um, my name is Alicia Yu and I just wanted to

20:52

say I also really enjoyed all of the presentations today. I felt very seen.

20:57

Definitely. So, actually my question to all of you would be what would some ad

21:05

what would be some advice I think that you would give in terms of kind of how to navigate the workplace? because I

21:13

feel like a lot of students also work and especially for me it’s been very

21:18

hard to kind of deal with over stimulation and a lot of the social

21:24

difficulties that I face when trying to look for work as well as being in the

21:30

workplace. So, I kind of just wanted to know if you’ve had this experience, how have you navigated it, how have you

21:36

cultivated um a community kind of as an autistic person?

21:43

First of all, I worked in a fast food restaurant for seven years and I’ve been an engineer for two years now. And at

21:50

the when I worked at the fast food restaurant, they knew about my disability and they also discriminated

21:56

against me for it. But I didn’t let that hinder me. I I still tried to put forth my best work until I got my first

22:03

engineering job. And then I wasn’t sure if I should disclose to them or not. But then I did and everyone accepted me and

22:10

treated me the same. And so I just show my true colors wherever I’m at. Yeah.

22:19

You don’t want to be stuck working in a place where you disclose and they shut you down. That is going to be so much

22:24

worse for your health than the process of finding a different job. Um I ultimately also favor

22:32

disclosure. That said, I also think the other piece of advice that I would give

22:38

my younger self is if you are let go or made redundant or laid off or even fired

22:44

for cause, all of which have happened to me, it is not the verdict on your value

22:51

as a person. It probably will feel terrible, but it doesn’t mean that you’re worthless.

23:01

I I would say um working a few office jobs now um communication because

23:07

sometimes being on the spectrum um in the back of your head you’re wondering if you did something right or you did

23:14

something wrong and I feel like for me communication has been key to the right people to make sure at the end of the

23:19

day a job is um getting a task done and getting work done and it shouldn’t

23:25

matter if you’re autistic or not if you’re able to get that done And for me, it’s been while it’s a little difficult

23:30

and it’s taken time to work up to it. I think having good communication with the

23:36

people above me who I report to, that has been key to make sure I that I I’m

23:41

valued and that I’m my work is that I’m doing good work that um basically is

23:47

getting the job done. So, that’s been the key for me. And there’s been instances that when I worked at the fast

23:54

food restaurant where customers would get mad at me and then the boss would

23:59

come over to me and say, “Hey, your disability is the reason why that customer is mad at you.” And then when

24:04

it happens to my neurotypical co-workers, they didn’t bat an eye. And so I felt I didn’t deserve to work for a

24:11

company that that discriminated against me. If that ever happens to you, leave. You find someone who accepts you and

24:18

employs you. Yeah, I have to agree with her. Uh I

24:24

have been fortunate enough to not have any experiences like that, but I am well

24:31

aware of people who have and as a person who has always felt in a sense that you

24:39

have eyes on you 24/7, not even helping that, you know, everyone carries a recording device in

24:46

their pocket. just that paranoia on top of you and you know just the last thing

24:52

you want is a debate on Twitter and whether your crash out was valid or not.

24:57

Stop filming kids melting down.

25:04

Agreed. Agreed with what they said. Stop posting your kids meltdowns for abuse.

25:12

Yeah. Um I also want to note that It’s becoming easier now more than ever to

25:19

not only find neuroaffirming workplace environments, but to also work directly

25:24

with or for neurode divergent people or causes. Um like I a couple summers ago I

25:31

was a a staffer at a Stanford neurodiversity camp in well Berkeley now

25:39

Stanford. Um, and like I was surrounded by neurode divergent folks at work and

25:46

it was like a very affirming experience. I didn’t really feel like I was disclosing. I was just being like, “Hey, I’m autistic.” And they’re like, “Yeah,

25:52

no, we are too.” Uh, so like the the the

25:58

standard workplace trajectory doesn’t have to be the one that you go on either. Like there’s so many like even

26:05

like being a neurode divergent college student and autistic college student and succeeding like you already have

26:10

information of value that parents can and will pay you for. So if like like

26:17

obviously like maybe your ideal job is in the neurotypical world then you have to do the work to be like okay should I

26:23

disclose what should I disclose? Is my work able to generate enough value that people overlook my disability? But if

26:30

not, like there is a space in the neurody divergent world for you and that space is getting bigger every day.

26:37

Agreed.

26:42

Well, uh I’d like to uh I definitely agree as like I personally

26:49

uh if like if a job would like I guess discriminate or fire against me, that’s

26:54

not the kind of work environment that I would like to be in. Uh but at the same time like I understand like Ryan’s is

27:01

like you know if you want to work in the neurotypical world sometimes it can be a personal decision about whether you need to disclose or not to disclose and it’s

27:07

just like that’s it’s I mean it’s sad that sometimes it’s like that. Uh but I I think that uh like if I’m able to I

27:16

prefer to work in an environment that would accept me. And I’ve been very fortunate that like I have like um so I

27:23

work part-time in at school and my uh uh co-workers and my employer are really

27:29

understanding. It was something I not I did not disclose at the beginning but then when I disclose it they were like

27:36

they didn’t nothing like it there was it was not a big deal or anything like that. They’re like oh okay. Uh and just

27:42

I was um kind of like surprised. I was like oh okay. Uh, and so I’m really glad that like people are becoming more

27:48

accepting nowadays. Um, and yeah, I I hope I

27:53

believe they’ll keep become keep becoming more accepting in the future, too.

28:00

Yeah. Um, it’s also very valuable to shadow in an industry that you’re interested in just to get a sense of

28:06

whether it’s one of those places that you can show up as your whole neurode divergent self and let your flag fly or

28:12

whether you will have to mask more and there might be uh repercussions even

28:18

though it’s not legal to you disclosing. Um, any last questions from the

28:24

audience? Oh no. Um, at least not from me. I just wanted There might be one behind you.

28:30

Oh, okay. I just wanted to say thank you first of all, but let me just pass this on then this will be our final question,

28:36

I think. Um, hello. Hello. Um, first thank you

28:41

all again for your cander and your vulnerability. Um, it’s it’s very impactful especially for those of us

28:47

just coming into our neurode divergent identities and like kind of exploring. So, I just kind of wanted to know from

28:53

everybody like what are you guys’ future goals? like what do you see for yourself maybe academically or career-wise or or

29:02

just personal goals and that kind of thing. So, right now, although I’m a full-time

29:08

engineer, I’m pursuing a master’s degree, and I’m not the best student academically, but I’m still trying it

29:15

because I want to further my education because I’m passionate about what I’m learning about. And then I want to try and get my professional engineering

29:22

license, which requires a six-hour exam that you have to pass, and an eight hour exam that you have to pass. And so far,

29:30

I’ve I’ve attempted the first exam, and I I haven’t passed, but I’m going to keep trying. I am just not a good test

29:35

taker. I Wait, you sat a six-hour exam and you’re going to go back and do it

29:40

again and that’s worth celebrating. Yeah, I’m going to try it. That’s incredible. Okay, sorry.

29:49

Period. Other other goals from other panelists? Maybe GMO or That’s great. I

29:55

want to be a Power Ranger when I grow up. Well, let us know how it turns out. No, but uh really my main goal is

30:03

well I don’t really have one. I feel like as a person with neurodeiversity

30:10

and especially with how the world has been changing recently, I don’t know how to really

30:17

root myself and connect to something.

30:22

I’ve always felt like a jack of trades, master of none. And that’s been something I feel like I’ve struggled

30:28

with all my life. A lot of people really know me as, “Oh, you’re so smart, you’re so good.” But it’s like I feel like I

30:34

just have surface level knowledge of this thing. And I never really specialized into anything. And even once

30:40

it feels like I did specialize into someone, there’s always going to be that one person that knows about it more than

30:45

you. And usually they’re the ones who get the job or anything. But I guess

30:51

just to answer the question instead of just treating this whole microphone like a therapy session is just to effectively

30:58

I just want to be happy. I just want to live my life. I just want to feel like I

31:04

can really accept myself for who I am. Be with people who accept me for who I

31:11

am. And I guess finally learn to love myself for who I am.

31:23

That’s a hard one to follow up on, especially if who he is is a Power Ranger.

31:28

Wow. Um, I have stuff career-wise and

31:35

school-wise I’m working on, but I feel like I’m always continuing to learn more

31:42

about myself and how I interact with the neurotypical world as neurode divergent,

31:48

I think, and it’s something that I know is ongoing and especially with this um the environment today. um something I

31:55

think I’m just continuing to be more aware of and how I can continue to be an advocate in that. And um I feel like

32:02

that’s kind of it. But also um yeah, uh I think for me I’ve I think especially

32:09

over the last few years with BNC, I’ve really not only kind of fall in love with neurodiversity advocacy, but just

32:16

the whole neurodiversity space. And kind of decided I really want to go back to

32:21

the neurotypical world, at least in a corporate sense. like like I have like like neurotypical

32:27

friends, but no, I mean they’re okay.

32:34

They’re they’re they’re they’re great. I So something I actually that’s coming up

32:39

I’m really excited about. I’m launching a podcast. Um it’s it’s called

32:45

Podism. The name came first and I was really excited about the name. Um, and

32:51

we’ve I’ve been in the planning stages of that. I just kind of I was having conversations with autistic people in my

32:57

life and I found I was really enjoying them and I felt I was pretty good at it. And I was like and I noticed there was

33:03

kind of an absence of like like voices talking about autism, not just like in a

33:10

kind of professional capacity, but also in a playful way like so. And I just

33:15

kind of wanted to throw my hat in the ring. So I’m working on that. Stay tuned for that. Um, and then I want to do more

33:20

neurodiversity advocacy work in higher education. I want to uh like consult

33:26

with parents and families with with autistic and neurody diverent college students kind of help give them the kind

33:31

of road map that I painstakingly developed over the last three years and just I’m really excited to get my hands

33:38

dirtier in the space.

33:43

I think the challenge of moving on forward is um kind of reframing the

33:49

categorizations that other have others have inflicted on your individual experiences. Um, for example, um, you’re

33:57

stmming being mislabeled as, you know, inappropriate or your challenges with

34:02

social behavior as awkward. And I think the challenges being the experiences of um,

34:09

autism are kind of this reframe of categories that don’t define you and to

34:15

find your own meaning within this system of neurody divergence.

34:22

Um, go ahead, Jenny. Oh, uh, I think I have a couple

34:28

different goals and, uh, so I currently work as like a peer academic advisor in

34:34

my department where I get to help students in navigating school policies and also major requirements and also

34:41

work with students that may have extending circumstances and help uh, refer them to resources. I think through

34:47

that job I’ve actually realized that I really like helping people. I love

34:52

volunteering even outside of school. Um I love helping people navigate and also

34:57

it helps that like you know me as like being neurody divergent and also disabled is that I also meet other

35:03

students that also navigating their own paths that are neurody divergent and disabled and like it’s sort of like that

35:09

kind of like I don’t know like like I had a student in which like they had told me that they were thinking about whether they’re autistic and I was like

35:16

oh like you know I was on the same journey as you were uh and I got like excited and like you know when they open

35:23

up a little bit about like their experiences. I can like relate to them and I I can talk about like various

35:29

things like mental health resources because I’ve utilized like all of them. Uh and so I I love being able to connect

35:35

to people and because I have this personal experience of navigating the system on my own, I can help and aid a

35:41

little bit in their own journey too. And so I think I I still love linguistics. I

35:46

love my major. Uh I’m still thinking about maybe doing that PhD in the future, but I think I might do clinical

35:52

social work uh where I can help other uh people that are also in the system um as

35:57

someone who’s navigated the system myself and has not had really had the best experiences. Uh so I think maybe

36:03

with that understanding I could help others. Um and then I mean kind of like what Danny said and uh as what you said

36:10

uh in which like personally I also am looking forward to just being happy. I feel like I kind of started like life

36:17

again in the last few months. Um, and also the last few years where I kind of rediscovered myself and kind of trying

36:23

to understand myself as like a neurody diversion person navigating this world and uh opening up and as someone who’s

36:30

like masked like their entire life is really nice and so comforting and it feels amazing when I can just kind of

36:37

like all right I’m just going to like uh just not do that and I don’t have to put in all the energy and like oh yes facial

36:43

expressions I have to do my intonation all right and I have to like make eye contact you know what like forget that I

36:49

don’t have to right now and it feels so real such a relief and I’m learning how to do that as well. So it’s like part of

36:55

my goals. So my immediate goal is to finish my PhD. Um, but then speaking

37:01

philosophically, um, I I would love to be a tenure professor, but I think it’s more

37:07

important and many of you guys are getting at the fact that it can be very healing once you step into your identity

37:14

as a neurode divergent emerging adult or in my case a neurode divergent 30some to

37:20

be the person that you needed when you were younger. And I I hardly think that that’s unique to being

37:27

autistic, but I’m very aware that

37:32

younger autistic trans people are at an incredible degree of risk right now. I’m

37:38

very aware that autistic young people, particularly autistic young men of color, are at risk of police violence.

37:45

And I’m aware that autistic women, as a survivor myself, are at very high risk

37:51

for abusive and intimate partner violence. And so I would like to make a

37:56

meaningful difference in the autistic research space on those issues that feel

38:02

emergent and life-threatening to me based on my experience, but that maybe

38:07

because they’re taboo or perhaps because the people doing the research are not autistic and don’t have the experience

38:14

of being confronted with those are not prioritized. So that’s what I would like

38:19

to do. Um I guess I’ve given up on being happy gear.

38:27

I feel you deeply. Thank you. But one thing’s for sure, we ain’t going

38:32

anywhere. No. Um, and I think that it on some level what we are doing is maybe

38:40

more heroic than being a Power Ranger. Same here. Yeah. All right. So, um, I

38:48

want to be a girl GMO when I grow up. Um, that’s it for our show tonight.

38:54

Thank you so much to everybody who joined us here at uh UCLA and the Chima Theater. And

39:01

um, thank you to those of you who are joining us online. Um, and to those of

39:07

you who will be listening later, thank you for listening to our podcast. Please give us a review. Uh, I would like to

39:14

give a very special thank you to Ryan of the Breuan Neurodiversity

39:20

Collective. Um, to Naen Fiona of the Rise Center, which has been talked about

39:26

with such love by the students here. UCLA RISE is doing great work. Um, to Yasam and Valoran of the Taran Center.

39:34

Uh, and she is a fabulous advocate and a co-sponsor of this talk tonight.

39:40

um and Spencer Scrugs of the UCLA Center for Accessible Education and all of the

39:46

team members here at UCLA who helped make this happen, including our team of

39:51

ASL interpreters. Thank you for your hard work tonight. Um the executive producer of Autism Goes to College is

39:58

our own Dr. Jan Blatcher. Um the director of this project and tonight’s

40:03

show is Mr. Eric Lindsor. Jesus Alvarado is our producer.

40:09

Uh, and Jodie Becker is the senior producer and editor of Autism Goes to College. I’m Katherine O’Brien, your

40:15

host. Thanks for tuning in, and we hope you’ll be back next time for a fresh episode of Autism Goes to College

40:21

wherever you listen. For more information on the podcast, the film, and our resource sections, you can find

40:27

that all on autism goes to college.org. And good night.