The Ravens Scholar Program assists students with autism at the University of Idaho to become as successful as possible in academia and prepare them for the future.
Photo illustration by Amy Asanuma | Argonaut
Melissa Bell, Raven Scholars intern, hangs a plaque awarded by the Northwest Association of Student Affairs Professionals. The Ravens Scholar program was awarded for their innovative program in Oct. 2012.
Elizabeth Miles, manager of the Ravens Scholar Program, has devoted her career to help level the playing field to ensure autistic students at UI are successful.
“We started out with four students in fall 2011 and now we have 15 students,” Miles said.
Recently the Ravens Scholar Program received the May Dunn Ward Innovative Program award for 2012 from the Northwest Association of Student Affairs Professionals. The award will give the Ravens Scholar Program a chance to be recognized and visible in the college community.
“It gives us a higher profile and a lot of new programs are approaching us to ask how we set up our program and to find out what does and does not work,” Miles said.
Miles said her goal is to see programs like Ravens Scholars in every university in the country.
The program has three main areas of focus: support for academic success, support for strengthening communication skills and support for executive functioning and life skills.
The program offers a social skills and a life skills class that helps the students adjust to the transition to college life. The program uses psychology student interns to mentor the programs’ 15 students.
Amanda Jacobs, a psychology major and Ravens mentor, said she applied for the Ravens internship program because she was genuinely interested in autism. Jacobs said though the program is hard, it is rewarding to get to know each individual student. She said being an intern in the program made her decide to go to graduate school for social work.
Bin Ma, a psychology major and mentor for Ravens, said participating in the program makes him feel like he is doing something worthwhile and he can positively change an individual’s life.
“Before the program, I always thought autism was the T.V. kind where the kid is just running all over the place and not doing anything, but then you find out it’s not,” Ma said.
He said while there are cases of autism that are the “TV kind,” the disorder is so varied that almost every case is different.
Miles said autism is a spectrum and there are a lot of different kinds and not any case is exactly the same. She said some people with autism have sensory issues, where they are extremely sensitive to light or sound, while others are geniuses in certain subjects, but they have poor social skills.
Miles said bringing awareness to autism is half the battle of beating it.
John Fish can be reached at [email protected]
