Translator: Beatriz dos Santos Morimoto Reviewer: Denise RQ
How is everyone doing?
I'm very glad to be here today.
So, I have a personal story I want to share with all of you today.
When I was just a baby
- as you can see through the adorable baby photos on the right here -
when I was four years old I was diagnosed
with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)
For a lot of people I'm sure you really don't know what that is,
but it is a form of autism.
So, when I was four I was diagnosed with autism,
and I had a lot of challenges.
I had severe sensory integration issues,
I had communication issues,
I had social issues,
and until I was two and a half I was also non-verbal.
I've certainly come a long way,
but one of the big things about autism today in our community
is that autism is seen, so many times,
as a diagnosis for children.
It's focused on...
So much of everything you see
on television and in the press is about children,
it's about getting - it got louder - children getting diagnosed,
it's about interventions,
it's about a wide range of difficulties with them.
But why I'm here to tell you about today is that autism is much more than that.
Autism is a life long disability
and today there is a lot of hope in our community.
There are individuals, such as myself, who are now adults with autism,
who are paving the way for our community today.
And we certainly have come a long way.
My personal story starts when I was four,
when I was diagnosed.
Because of all my difficulties, because of my issues,
I really didn't know where I was going to be
when I became an adult.
I didn't have many aspirations as a kid
because of the amount of services I had to go through.
But because of where I came,
and because of my supports I was able to become an adult,
I was able to go to college.
That's something really no one thinks about
a lot of the time when you think about autism;
you don't think of autism, and you don't associate it with college.
But I here to tell you today that not only was I able to graduate from college
with a degree in Business Administration
and then also get a Master's in Strategic Communications
to give presentations like I'm giving today
but I have found that there are so many more individuals
who are getting to college, who are doing these things.
And today I'm happy to say
I have a full-time job with the National Organization Autism Speaks.
I have been able to not only go to get a Master's in Strategic Communications
but also get to travel the country as a national motivational speaker,
talking about autism awareness,
talking about disability awareness.
And it's given me the opportunity to do things in Jersey City
that I never thought I would have done when I was a kid.
Just a month ago, we were with Tommy Hilfiger
in Jersey City at the Golden Door Film Festival
and my autism advocacy has really come to the point
where I want to become an advocate for those who are going to college,
who are adults in our community.
So, college was one of the biggest dreams I ever had.
And the theme of this brave new world
is that there are individuals with autism going to college.
And one of my earliest dreams was to get to college.
And when I was in high school, during my senior year, that was the goal.
My parents applied me to 15 different colleges,
we wanted to get into somewhere.
And when the first letters started coming in,
we were just on pins and needles,
not really knowing what to expect,
and when the first letter came in,
it took us three days to open the letter, we were just like:
"OK, we're not opening this, we're going to wait as long as possible."
And when the first letter came in, I got accepted.
I got accepted into my first choice, which was Seton Hall University.
That was it, that's all we really need.
We were just really thrilled to get into some place.
So, we got into Seton Hall and then as my senior year went along,
the rest of the 14 other letters came in,
and by the end of the senior year, I got accepted into all 15 colleges.
Thank you. (Applause)
And it just went to show
that not only was I able to accomplish my dream of getting into college
but there was someone out there who believed in me
to the point where they could see me succeeding in college.
That's why I want to see for so many individuals with autism today.
So, when we think of dreams, what do we think of?
For me, like I said, one of my earliest dreams was to get to college.
So, when I got to college I became an advocate.
It was the first time -
I progressed so much as a kid, no one really knew I had autism,
no one really understood that:
"This kid can't have autism, he's in college, he's speaking,
he's going out to parties, he's doing all this.
It's like how, how is this possible? How could this be someone with autism?"
And that's when I came out to my pears for the first time,
telling them that I am on autism spectrum.
And by sharing my story, I was able to educate
and really try to make a difference for those with autism.
Now, what is autism?
I've talked a lot about how I'm on autism spectrum,
but autism today is a social and communication disorder
that affects a wide range of individuals.
And the one big thing about autism is that autism is a life long disability.
It's staggering the numbers today of autism.
If you've read any of the statistics, you may know that currently
in our society 1 in 68 are affected by autism in the United States
It has become a huge, huge epidemic in our society,
and it's something we all need to really look at
because autism isn't going away in our society.
We are 1 in 68 who have autism in the United States
which is over 3 million individuals
- which is 1% of our population -
and then we have over 70 million individuals
who have autism across the world.
So, autism is in our society and it is not going anywhere anytime soon.
New Jersey, where we live,
we currently have the highest prevalence of autism in the country:
1 in 45 individuals being diagnosed.
If any of you have heard about autism in New Jersey,
we have some of the best supports,
and we're able to get some of the best diagnoses for our kids,
which is a big reason why we think the numbers are the best here
because we are making sure
that these kids aren't falling through the cracks.
So, because of the numbers of autism,
autism has become a hot topic in our society.
Autism is everywhere in our society.
It's in films, it's in TV, it's in books,
it's basically everywhere you go.
You really can't find a place where you're not hearing about autism,
whether it's from a co-worker, a pear, etc and so fourth.
It's everywhere in our society.
And some of the biggest autism advocates we have today,
you may have heard names such as Dr Temple Grandin,
who had the HBO film about her life called "Temple Grandin".
And then there is other individuals like John Elder Robison,
who had a New York Times best selling novel,
and then just recently in the news,
I don't know if anyone has been seeing this,
but Jerry Seinfeld also believes that he is on the autism spectrum.
So, you really can't -
There are so many celebrities today,
and it just goes to show you how wide and how big a topic autism has become.
And with the autism numbers,
one of the other big things we have right now
is that autism in adults is growing rapidly.
We currently have 500,000 individuals
with autism who are going to reach adulthood within the next decade.
That just goes to show you
that these kids are going to be reaching adulthood,
and they are going to need supports
but also, at the same time,
colleges are going to be a possibility for some.
The other staggering statistic which I usually talk to people about,
is the fact that in our community autism -
There is really not that many opportunities for employment,
most individuals with autism are under-employed or not employed at all.
And that goes to show
that if we can't get more supports in colleges for these kids with autism,
then the possibilities for jobs, the possibility--
because I mean, our economy right now--
just everyone is having a tough time looking for a job,
not only individuals with autism.
So, if we are able to get those supports, the possibilities are endless.
My personal story goes to show you how rapidly autism is increasing.
When I was diagnosed with autism in 1992,
the numbers of autism were 1 in every 5,000;
today it's 1 in 68.
It just goes to show autism isn't going anywhere,
and in the next few years we don't know what the numbers will be;
1 in 40, 1 in 20?
Every couple of years the numbers just keep increasing,
so we need to be ready for these kids.
Obviously, college doesn't come easy. It takes a lot of work.
And that starts with early interventions and supports for these individuals.
It starts with early interventions and supports,
it starts with getting these kids a proper diagnosis,
and learning the signs of autism as early as possible.
By learning the signs of autism as early as possible,
we are able to get these kids a diagnosis,
we are able to get them support and then we are able to get them services,
so when they go into school they have the proper IEP,
they have the proper programs the same place where they can thrive.
Early intervention is the key for these kids.
Being able to support them and then also give them
the right supports throughout their entire academy process
is really a key for getting them there.
One of the other things about autism in the school
is that autism for many is a 24/7 job.
When you look at autism today in our society,
you can see that with the supports, with the services,
many of these individuals have to go through ongoing process:
everything from ABA to physical therapy,
to occupational therapy, the speech therapy.
Most kids go nine to three in school.
It's just nine to three, but for many with autism, it's after school.
It's going into the summer,
it's literally just every single day, you really have to work at it.
And that's what I had to do when I was a kid.
When I was just a baby...
When I did start gaining speech,
it was still a long road ahead of me to get me to where I am today.
And because of that,
I had really two of the best coaches I could have asked for,
and that starts with my mom and dad.
My mom was probably the saint
who really came in to make sure that all the dreams
I wanted to accomplish, including college, came true.
My mom started with the Board of Education in Jersey City
because she saw that there is such a limit on these kids,
kids with special needs.
And one of the best quotes that my mom has ever talked about
is that my mom came into the Jersey City Public School System to help her kid
and then she stayed for almost 19 years to help everyone else's.
And she's been a godsend along with my dad
- both of them are in the audience today -
and because of their support,
I've really been able to accomplish many of my dreams today.
So, with autism, because of my diagnosis,
we were really trying to get me the best supports possible.
One of the best supports that came to me
was when I was able to go out of district.
When I was able to go out of district,
I was able to, for the first time, really get the supports I needed,
the services I needed, and it helped me tremendously.
I went to public school from 1st to 4th grade,
and then, from 5th to high school
I was in a school for kids with learning disabilities
out of district, at a school called Community Laurel School
and then Community High School.
And this is where I got to really focus on my key interest.
These schools were focused on giving you the opportunity to succeed,
but they also wanted you to focus on the things you are passionate about.
2 of my greatest passions, as you can see, were drama and basketball.
And I took those aspirations, and I took those key interests
to get me to point where I am today, where I could thrive with my autism
but also understand how my key interest,
if I was able to put passion in these certain things
that I could also put passion into other things,
like school work and trying to get to college,
and that really helped along the way.
Basically, what I'm trying to get at with college for autism
is that through the entire process - it's an ongoing process -
we need early intervention, we need supports for these kids in school,
we need the therapies they need to succeed,
but once they get to college,
once these individuals have the opportunity to get to college,
we need to make sure that colleges understand what autism is,
because right now college and autism are basically--
just very, very little is being done in terms of awareness.
So, this is broken down into having mentoring,
it's focused on having autism awareness at colleges,
it's focused on having services for these kids.
It's focused on making sure disability support services understand
what autism is and how they can help these individuals.
And that all starts with sharing the stories of these individuals.
Sharing not only my story but the stories of individuals,
the 500,000 individuals who will be reaching adulthood.
For these individuals, who will be reaching college,
being able to share their stories,
being able to share the possibilities,
gives unlimited amount of potential to spread awareness for these supports
and ideally, to help
the future generations of Kerry Magros with autism to succeed in college.
Like I said, in college I became the advocate.
I became the advocate who wanted to really see people with autism succeed.
And I spread awareness,
I started spreading awareness, basically on my first day
when I was at Seton Hall and after that experience,
I just wanted to educate my pears more and more on autism every single day.
And that's really what I wanted to do once I got out college as well
because I saw the lack of awareness
and the lack of acceptance for autism in my pears.
And by trying to educate those individuals,
I wanted to educate the individuals in my work place,
I wanted to educate the individuals in our Jersey City community
on what autism was and made sure that people understand
what potential there was for individuals with autism today.
So, in college, because of my supports,
and because of wanting to became an advocate,
I started the first student organization on my campus
called Student Disability Awareness
for kids with all different types of disabilities.
What I wanted to do was,
I wanted to break down the barriers for individuals with disabilities,
who have gone through any ignorance,
or any bullying, or any type of lack of awareness in their lives.
So, I started SDA, the first student organization for kids with disabilities,
and that paved the way to start my nonprofit organization.
I started an organization called KFM Making a Difference,
where I was able to give out scholarships for individuals to go to college.
And so far,
we've given out seven scholarships since we started in fall 2012.
We've just have our first graduate, who graduated from Wisconsin-Whitewater
with a dual major in Political Science and Business.
So, it just goes to show you not only was I able to get through college
but also all these individuals who are on an autism spectrum
are pursuing their dreams.
And it's not only in New Jersey,
we've have winners from Wisconsin, Los Angeles, Detroit,
all these individuals are going to college and they are succeeding.
And it just goes to show you how wide our spectrum is for autism,
it's just, how many people are doing amazing things.
"So, finally," - said a mouthful about autism during this presentation -
one of the big things I want to say is in this brave new world
college is going to be possible for individuals with autism.
It's not going to be for every single individual with autism
- because autism is a wide spectrum,
there are individuals who are high functioning,
there are more who are low functioning -
but for individuals like me,
for individuals like the 500,000 who will be reaching adulthood,
we need to see college as a possibility for these individuals
because at the end of the day,
one of the big things I say is: autism doesn't define my life.
I define autism.
And for these individuals,
these individuals who are going to college today,
we are defining autism in college.
And that's a beautiful, beautiful thing to see in this brave new world.
Thank you so much.
(Applause)