Ohio State University – Filling in OUR Piece of the Puzzle
The idea of a student chapter emerged following the record-breaking inaugural 2008 Columbus Walk Now for Autism event held at The Ohio State University. A very dedicated Walk committee member and university employee, Jessica Beauvais, began the process of recruiting student leaders and establishing an official student organization. The mission of this group is to engage the campus community (faculty, staff and students) through education, awareness, friendship and fundraising to positively affect the lives of those struggling with autism spectrum disorders.
With an energetic faculty advisor and student officers, the chapter held their first official monthly meeting in February 2009. The students invited leaders in the Columbus autism community, including developmental pediatricians, state representatives, parent advocates and ABA specialists, to speak to their group to learn how their efforts could make the largest impact for Central Ohio families affected by autism spectrum disorders.
The students quickly realized a void in connecting student interventionists with families who are in need of their services. They developed a group website where students post their interests in working with families and parents connect with these students to fulfill the behavioral interventions for their child.
The chapter was on a mission to heighten autism awareness at Ohio State, advocate for insurance reform in Ohio and raise funds for the Walk. The advertising, outreach and fundraising committees launched their efforts in April 2009 and held many awareness and fundraising events throughout the remainder of the year. Their goal was to raise $2,000 for their OSU Students Walk team for the 2009 Columbus Walk. Through t-shirt sales, ribbon sales, cosmetic parties, dorm awareness and fundraising the students tripled their goal with over $6,200 in only six months! They are among the top 15 teams in dollars raised for the 2009 Columbus Walk Now for Autism Speaks.
Led by president Julie Cecys, the students are hard at work developing their fundraising and awareness campaigns for April 2010, educating one Buckeye at a time. They are also looking forward to participating in Autism Speaks U and igniting a friendly fundraising competition among their Big 10 rivals.
I have been a speech/language pathologist since 1972 (M.A. and Ph.D. from The OSU). In 1979, with the help of Sertoma, parents and friends, I started a preschool for children with speech/language/hearing disorders/delays. The school has been in continuous operation since then. Hundreds of children have benefited. In 2009 the pastor of our church made a plea for someone to work with an autistic 10 year old whose father had just left for his third tour of duty in Iraq. While volunteering, I read many autobiographies (Grandin, Robison, Tammet, among them) and took many courses in order to get a better understanding of this age group. My work with a parent group of older youngsters on the spectrum prompted a Pepsi grant application in order to start what we hope will be a model, charter school for 4th-6th graders. Pepsi has accepted the Language Experience Center’s application for a $250,000 grant to start a charter school for those with communication challenges-especially autism, asperger’s, and apraxia in Newark, Ohio. A person can vote every day during January by logging into http://www.refresheverything.com/languageexperiencecenter and voting for our project, “Start School for Children With Communication Challenges-Stop Bullying”. Each person can vote for our project each day by 3 different ways 1. Email address; 2. Facebook; 3. Cell phone; text 105572; dial Pepsi (73774). I am planning to send out daily reminders to vote and to include a vignette of what it means to be on the spectrum in order to educate the public AND reduce bullying. You can receive the daily reminders by emailing me talkdoc43023@msn.com or by becoming my “Friend” on Facebook, Barbara K. Lechner. Please vote for our project and send the daily reminder to vote to your email and Facebook contacts. Prospective students and their families will be grateful. 6 degrees of separation!