Presentation Title: Empowering Autistic Scholars in College and Beyond

Presenter(s): Jessica Nombrano Larsen, School of Information

Abstract: My presentation is about Empowering Autistic Scholars (EAS), a peer mentoring and research training program I am starting at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. This innovative program will empower first-year autistic students by providing them with opportunities to increase their academic and professional skills, welcome them into a supportive learning community, and provide them with the individualized supports they need to be successful in college and beyond. Students will be paid as research assistants to help develop a self-paced, asynchronous online workshop to ease students transition to college. Autistic Cal Poly students will choose the workshop topic based on their most pressing support needs, and Universal Design for Learning methods will be utilized to ensure the workshop is beneficial for all, while being fully accessible to autistic students. Community-based participatory research methods will be utilized to empower autistic students by ensuring an equal partnership between the research team and study participants. Development of this program has improved my research, project management, instructional development, assessment and evaluation, and advocacy skills. My goal is to become an academic librarian focused on providing instruction and support to increase student engagement and success, and EAS has better prepared me for this role.

Link to Recorded Presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-h8Mcs-uZAbwlwTTYOgkLpYGTxqGw4Qu/view?usp=sharing