April 3, 2018 – Santa Fe College students, faculty and staff were joined by area employers Monday to celebrate students on the autism spectrum during World Autism Day.
The day was filled with seminars and discussion from people on the spectrum, as well as employers and SF faculty. The SF Counseling Center, Student Life, SFPD and other campus groups and organizations participated in the events. It also marked the launch of the Spectrum of Success webpage on SF’s website, which offers tips and suggestions for working with people on the spectrum to students, faculty and employers.
Pam Childers, who oversees the program as part of SF’s Disabilities Resource Center staff, wants the public to know that students on the spectrum can achieve the same things that neurotypical students can, they just often have different methods of learning academic material.
Spectrum of Success is designed to help integrate students on the autism spectrum into the SF community as a whole, allowing its students to interact and counsel each other through difficulties many other students and faculty at the college may not be able to understand. Spectrum of Success is also focused on helping students develop the skills they need to enter the workforce following graduation.