An Autistic College Student’s Story

Transcript

An Autistic College Student’s Story

April 21^st, 2024

Segment 1

Welcome everyone to Today’s Autistic Moment: A Podcast for Autistic Adults by an Autistic Adult. My name is Philip King-Lowe. I am the owner, producer, and host; and I am an Autistic Adult. Thank you so very much for listening.

Today’s Autistic Moment is a member of The Autistic Podcasters Network.

Explore, Engage, Empower: Today’s Autistic Moment-The Podcast for Intersectional Autistic Adult Communities

This first segment of Today’s Autistic Moment is sponsored by The Autism Society of Minnesota, known as AuSM throughout Minnesota’s Autism community. As Minnesota’s First Autism Resource for more than 50 years, AuSM serves the whole state, the whole spectrum, for the whole life. Visit AuSM online at ausm.org. 

Thank you for joining me for the second show during Autism Acceptance Month.  In segments two and three Holt Mills will be my guest to tell us An Autistic College Student’s Story.   

Please visit todaysautisticmoment.com where you can listen to the podcast, get transcripts, program updates, and read the guest bios pages. Please visit the Future Shows Page to read the titles, guests, and descriptions of all shows coming up through June. The transcripts are sponsored by Minnesota Independence College & Community. The transcripts can be read and followed from the website. There is a link provided to get access to a document form of the transcript so that you can print it, so it won’t use up the ink on your printer. The written document has a font that is accessible for dyslexics. While visiting the website, please consider supporting the work of Today’s Autistic Moment with a financial donation or purchase a 16oz drinking cup or a lapel pin at the Logo Shop.

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Thank you and congratulations to The Autism Society of Minnesota for hosting a superb Minnesota Autism Conference.  It was a privilege and honor for Today’s Autistic Moment to host a resource table again this year.  I enjoyed meeting many of my listeners in Minnesota.  Thank you for stopping by.

I have some exciting news about some changes coming to Today’s Autistic Moment.  Arc Minnesota gave Today’s Autistic Moment a much-needed grant to upgrade the podcast equipment I use.  The new equipment includes a sound mixer and recorder and a quality microphone.  Starting in June you can look forward to an improved sound quality that will be adjusted and produced so that my voice and those of my guests will be clearer and equalized.  Thank you to Arc Minnesota for the microgrant to make improvements that are forthcoming. 

I would like to read for you some sentences that I have been reading on various social media networks during Autism Acceptance Month.  It is sentences like these that continue the dominant cultures negativity towards Autism.  To protect the names of those mentioned in these sentences, the names have been changed.

Dan and Jesse are identical twins with autism. But Dan is in college, while Jesse still struggles to form sentences. Their experience may shed light on the disorder’s mix of nature and nurture.⁠

Do you have a child with a mental health challenge or Autism Spectrum Disorder?

“John Doe has profound Autism.  John Doe struggles are severe and life-threatening.  John Doe has no sense of danger, which manifests itself in different ways.”

“The main signs and symptoms of autism in adults are impairment in social interactions and communication along with a person’s behavior.”

Autism Acceptance and the Neurodiversity Paradigm takes these sentences to sound more like this.

Dan and Jesse are Autistic and identical twins.  Dan is in college. Jesse has his own way of communicating with others without using full sentences. The experiences of these two Autistic individuals is a perfect example of what diversity within the Autistic community is like.

Do you have a child who is Autistic with other identities that need supports to help them build a successful future that works for them? 

John Doe is Autistic with higher support needs. John’s sensory needs includes sensory input that places them on the edge and needs supports to help them manage their limits safely.  

Autistics demonstrate strengths with unique social interaction styles and communicate in their own way.  Autistics are poorly understood and need to be accepted as they are.

After this next commercial break, Holt Mills, a graduating senior at Minnesota Independence College & Community will tell us about his experience of getting support in an educational environment that accepts him and works with him where he is at and helped him take other steps going forward to reach his goals. 

Stay with us after this commercial break to listen to An Autistic College Student’s Story.

Commercial Break I

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Segment 2

Philip King-Lowe 

Holt Mills, welcome to Today's Autistic Moment. It is so wonderful to have you here.

Holt Mills 

I'm so happy to be here too.

Philip King-Lowe 

Good. All right. Well, I am really excited to have this particular show because Minnesota Independence College & Community has been a generous sponsor of Today's Autistic Moment. And I because of the work that MICC does with the education of Autistic individuals, going through a college degree process, I really wanted to produce a show with a student who is going to be graduating and to and to you know, just give some folks a look at what's happening in a college atmosphere that is so accepting, especially since we're an Autism Acceptance Month here. So, with that in mind, holds I'm gonna ask you my first question. Why did you choose Minnesota Independence College & Community?

Holt Mills 

I choose MICC because I have Autism. And to help me learn the independent skills such as cooking and cleaning, since I didn't know how to do that before MICC. Yeah. I'm originally from Texas, and there were no programs like MICC near there.

Philip King-Lowe 

What were your courses of study? What is your major at MICC?

Holt Mills 

My major at MICC is hospitality. Which I get to do, which is a program where I get to like, explore different job sites where I get to interact with people.

Philip King-Lowe 

Can you give us some examples as to some of those spaces where hospitality is something that you do?

Holt Mills 

Yes, for example, I had three different sites last year. One of them was at Ebenezer. The other Great Wolf and the one that Good Grocer. Okay. And like things that I did at Good Grocer. I did some things like taking items on the shelf that were expired and stocking items on the shelf. And another thing I did was getting to clean tables and take out the trash and recycle. And like I did things like greet guests in different parts of the building like the lobby, the arcade, the gift shop, the price room, and like the waterpark and I also did prepping inside the kitchen. At Ebenezer I did things like escorting residents to and from places and like playing bingo, and like the virtual reality and get into clean the dining room.

Philip King-Lowe 

How did Minnesota Independence College & Community help you learn what you need to know to pursue the career that you have been preparing for?

Holt Mills

I had to take some career classes and able to choose a program. And I took this one careers class, my freshman year of college career exploration where I got to learn about the four programs before actually choosing one. And after I chose my certificate program, I had to visit some places to be able to do my practicum sites, which is also an internship.

Philip King-Lowe 

Yeah. What was that time of exploration like for you? When you went through that process, you know, what were some of the other? Maybe can you share with us? What were some of the other programs that you went into to explore careers? Was there something about hospitality? That said, you know, yes, I really want to pursue this.

Holt Mills 

The some of the things I do, I'm able to prepare, like mock interviews, looking at personal employment preferences. How to ask for accommodations in the workplace, guidance, feedback, and support from instructors.

Philip King-Lowe 

Very good.

After this next commercial break, Holt will tell us how MICC met his Autistic needs, helped him find his strengths with communication and develop his independent living skills.

Commercial Break II

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Segment 3

Philip King-Lowe

How do you think that Minnesota Independence College & Community has met your Autistic needs, so that you can get the best education that you can?

Holt Mills 

I feel like MICC has helped me with my Autistic needs, like transportation, like doing laundry and like my five-point scale, and stress, and anxiety, like focus and organization and like apartment teaching every weekday as a first-year student. And like how stuff have helped me and to the staff, our staff being supportive and helping me focus me on skill building assignments, support learning, with communication strategies for talking to many different types of people.

Philip King-Lowe 

Are you able to share with us about how the process of learning how to communicate with different groups of people? Can you talk at all? And I know I'm springing this on you, so take your time to answer. I'm very interested as to how MICC might have helped you with that communication piece because we know that when working in hospitality communication is one of the most important yet one of the one of the more challenging aspects about being Autistic. So, can you share a little bit of that for me?

Holt Mills 

If I wasn't at MICC, I would be having a hard time with being independent from my family. When I first started at MICC, I had trouble living with roommates. And now I have worked on it and have a plan to live with roommates to live with a roommate I met at MICC. Before MICC I had never lived independently. And at the time, I didn't want to because I didn't know what to expect. But now I can be an Autistic Adult by living on my own. Advisors have helped me with things like setting goals for me to do and MICC, And I've had some other classes too where I've learned how to work, learn how to budget. And it's also helped me by having job development so I can find the right job for me to get when I'm living in the community.

Philip King-Lowe

Has your time at Minnesota Independence College & Community helps you to be a confident Autistic person? So that you can pursue your career and if so, can you please give us some great examples as to how they have helped you do that?

Holt Mills

Yes, they have helped me learn my independent skills. They have taught me to advocate for myself when I need it and like, and also having a social connection with, with friends here at MICC and accepting people and Autism is a part of who we are, and I'm surrounded by many people with it. Okay. MICC helped teach me that my Autism is something to be proud of. My differences are also my strengths. The community at MICC is made up of people like me who are accepting and who are good friends. Like for example, I'm very good at remembering people's birthdays. And I'd like to say happy birthday to people when it is their birthday. MICC appreciates these parts of my personality.

Philip King-Lowe 

My last question for you is important. Yeah. You're about to graduate from Minnesota Independence College and Community. What does that mean? What does that mean for you to be graduating from MICC? I mean, when you think about how you feel about that, how do you feel about graduating? And what does it mean for you to be doing that?

Holt Mills 

It means I've accomplished something and moved one step towards independence. So, what I have accomplished in three years, like when I'm joining the community program, I'll be working going to going to more MICC events than I did in the college program, continuing to have friends at MICC and seeing new places around the city.

Philip King-Lowe 

Okay, very good. Well, Holt, we want to say congratulations to you on making these milestones in your own life. And welcome. You know, I think this is a tremendous, this is tremendous work that that you've done, and MICC has done. And so, we want to thank you and Minnesota Independence College & Community for being with us today. And I think I think that you have indeed given us a great a great look into what a good college that works with Autistic students can do. So, thank you for being here today. And we certainly wish you well as you move forward.

Holt Mills. 

Thank you.

Philip King-Lowe 

You're welcome.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

I found a great song that I want to play for you as we conclude this segment. The song is entitled Just Walk with Me. After the commercial break, Today’s Autistic Community Bulleting Board. 

Commercial Break III

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Future Shows

If you find yourself stressed out from all of the negativity during April, the shows coming in May will help you work through what you are experiencing.

On May 5^th, join us for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder & Autistic Adults.  PTSD impacts Autistic Adults and the many intersectional communities we are part of.  The combination of unintentional harm and intentional harm are multi-layered and take years to work through.

Silas Zacharias joins me to talk about the impact of PTSD on Autistic Adults with some recommendations for working our way through it.

Angela (AJ) Locashio returns to Today’s Autistic Moment on May 19^th for Anger Management for Autistic Adults.  Continuing from where the last show left off about PTSD, we turn to some helpful tips about anger management.  Anger is a natural response to when we feel the need to protect ourselves from perceived dangers.  PTSD fuels a lot of anger in us for things that happened that were out of our control. Angela (AJ) Locashio returns to Today’s Autistic Moment to tell us how anger has affected them and will give some examples of how to manage our anger.

Check out to the Future Shows Page on todaysautisticmoment.com for all updates about shows coming up.

If you would like to offer to be a guest, go to the Be My Guest page on todaysautisticmoment.com to fill out the Guest Intake Form.

If you have any topic suggestions, please go to the Contact Us page and submit your ideas.

Thank you for listening to Today’s Autistic Moment.

Segment 4

Today’s Autistic Community Bulletin Board

All of these events and many others with their links can be found at todaysautisticmoment.com/bulletinboard.

Go to autisticwomenemerging.org to read about the AutisticaPalooza conference that will be held on October 18-20^th, 2024 at the Marriott Denver South in Denver, Colorado.  Tickets are now on sale.

Join The Autism Society of Minnesota for their Adult Coffee Club. The next Coffee Clubs will be on Tuesday nights from 5pm to 7pm at Dogwood Coffee in St. Paul on May 7^th, and June 4^th. Please RSVP at ausm.org.

Register for the Summer ASD Direct Support Certification Classes at The Autism Society of Minnesota.  Classes will be Monday through Friday, June 10^th to the 14^th, from 9am to 12noon.  Cost is $300 per person, scholarships are available.

On May 21^st at 7-8:30pm Jillian Nelson will be the presenter at a workshop at The Autism Society of Minnesota entitled Minnesota Service Navigation.  Jillian will provide her own perspective of service navigation as an Autistic Adult.  Learn what services are available and which ones may work best for you and your loved ones.  Services may vary on an individual and family basis. Jillian is not able to provide what an individual may qualify for in services.  However, she can walk you through what the process is like and how to find out what someone qualifies for in the state of Minnesota.

Steps for Autism will be on Sunday, May 19^th from 9am to 12pm at ROC at the St. Louis Park Rec Center located at 3700 Monterey Drive in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.  All of the funds raised at this event stay in Minnesota for the Autism Community. 

Go to ausm.org to get more information about these and other social and educational events, counseling services and support groups at The Autism Society of Minnesota.

MNeurodivergent is a social club rooted in a vision of bringing Neurodivergent Minnesotans together to build meaningful connections.  Its core principle is to foster an environment where all are treated with dignity and respect regardless of ability or preferences. Go to the bulletin board at todaysautisticmoment.com and click on the Meet Up link to become a member and attend their events.

Today’s Autistic Moment is here because of the generosity of sponsors and supporters.  Please join the supporters by clicking on Support Today’s Autistic Moment on todaysautisticmoment.com.

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Thank you for listening to Today’s Autistic Moment: A Podcast for Autistic Adults by An Autistic Adult.

May you have an Autistically Amazing day.