AS Peer-mentoring Program

Post Reply New Topic

I am a freshman with AS at the University of Connecticut and am working with the Center for Students with Disabilities and the SEAD Program (for students with Asperger's) to organize a peer-mentoring program for freshman with AS. Our plan is for upperclassmen in the SEAD Program to peer-mentor a freshman and help them get acclimated to the University in what could otherwise be an overwhelming experience. Does anyone know of a similar program or can offer any suggestions? If you're a college student in such a program, what does it do, what do you like, what do you dislike. If you go/went to college and there wasn't such a program, what would you have wanted from one? And if you're a college administrator who offers such a program, could you explain about it? Feel free to reply here or email me at [email protected] (don't use the one in my profile - I'm trying to keep all college emails in one place). Thanks for your help.

University of Central Florida has a program called CARD that helps the community and students with autism related disabilities. A quick google search will give their email and phone #.. you could contact them and ask them directly

The college I went to didn't have a program like this in their campus ... but they were pretty good at recognizing any student's issues and helping them through.

There is one policy however that I would have loved the college to implement: have an alternative grade-earning option of assignment when it came to presentation(speech)-type assignments.

Many professors love to do these because its easier to grade 4+ people at a time for 1 piece of work than the entire class... but for those with AS or autism or social anxiety its a train wreck...and your excellently researched, information-stuffed, A+ deserving research essay becomes a C- because you messed up the verbal presentation of it.

... and its irritating to see people who barely did any research and covered superficial information that's almost middle-school level get high grades because they go up there and dazzle with their props and charisma.