When I first entered high school, I was an awkward kid. I didn’t really interact with any of my peers that much in kindergarten through middle school because I didn’t know how to talk to other kids due to my autism. Even when I entered Norwin High School, I mostly kept to myself and didn’t bother trying to talk to anyone or make any friends. High school was a big and scary place. I didn’t want to do anything except learn, go to lunch, and go home. It didn’t help that the first couple of “friends” I met didn’t treat me well so I decided to stop trying to make new friends.
It stayed like that until the end of my freshman year, when I started to interact with my track teammates more. I met this one senior on the team named Jack Cheney. He saw something in me that I didn’t see, achieving great success in my life. Jack would encourage me to push myself to work harder and to give my best effort in races. At my last track meet, I was running the one mile. I started the race running as fast as I could and passed ahead of everyone else in the race. Every time I did a lap I saw and heard Jack and his girlfriend cheering me on. That gave me the strength to finish the race in first place. After the race, Jack came up to congratulate me on my win. He said that I will achieve amazing success in my running career. At the end of the school year, Jack invited me to his graduation party. I was so excited because I had never been invited to a graduation party before, and I felt so special.
At the beginning of my sophomore year, I started becoming really good at Cross Country. This also translated to my social life as I started to interact with people on the team significantly more than last year. My teammates saw how much work I put into getting better at running and they respected me for it. In particular, I became friends with a group of guys on the team named Richard Zula, Maerek Moenssens, and Atticus Knight. We would sometimes mess around before practice starts, or sometimes even at the meets. Those guys were a ton of fun to be around and made cross country so much more fun. During track season, we met this guy who joined the track team that year. His name was Kaden Markovich and he quickly became a part of our friend group. Kaden was funny, energetic, and a fun person to be around, so he fit right in with the rest of us. I also started to interact with people in school as well. I became more comfortable with going up to people and having a conversation with them, something that I never thought I would be able to do my freshman year.
When I was starting high school, my parents wanted me to do the Bearcat B.E.S.T. program at Saint Vincent College. According to the official Saint Vincent College website, “The Bearcat B.E.S.T. program was created in response to parents of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities who expressed a need for specialized transition programming. It focuses on supporting young adults who may not be suited for post‑secondary education but, with appropriate transition services, can achieve greater independence than a sheltered workshop would provide. The goals of the program are to develop the students’ capabilities in each of the four pillar areas: academics, vocational training, independent living, and social skills.” My parents would talk about the program, but they didn’t really tell me about it until my junior year. One day, after cross country practice, my dad was picking me up and told me that Saint Vincent’s had a program for people with disabilities that he wanted me to go to after high school. I got very upset when my dad said that because I didn’t feel comfortable in that program because I wanted to go to college and learn like my typical peers. My parents told me to give the program a chance because they didn’t think I would get into any other college because of my autism. So one day I took a college trip to Saint Vincent to take a look at the program. After I was done with the trip, I decided that I wouldn’t do the program. I think their program would be a fit for some people but not for me. I didn’t like it because what they taught was at a lower level than I would like. When I told my dad what I thought of the program, he got really upset with me and said that I didn’t have that many options aside from this program. I went back for a second trip, but my opinion on the program didn’t change. My mom told me that after the first semester, students in the program can audit classes, but they will not get any college credit. I really didn’t want to do the program, so I looked into some other options for college and found Westmoreland County Community College as a possible option. When I mentioned it to my parents, they were hesitant at first but slowly began to be open to the possibility. At the end of 2025 my high school cross country coach reached out to the cross country coach for Westmoreland County Community College and told him that I was a great runner and student and recommended me for the team. So the college coach reached out to my parents and told them that I could get some scholarship money if I ran on the college team. A couple of weeks after this I was in the car with my dad and he told me that he wanted me to go to Westmoreland County Community College to run on the cross country team and to continue my education career. He also agreed that Westmoreland County Community College would be the best option for me. Finally, on January 20th 2026, my parents and I took a college trip to Westmoreland County Community College to talk to the cross country coach. When we got there, we went on a college tour with a couple of other families. After the tour was over, we went to the coach’s office to have a meeting with him. It went really well and I ending up singing a deal with the cross country team to run for scholarship money. After years of trying, I finally convinced my parents I could go to college.
During my junior year of high school, I started to hang out with my friends for the first time and had a date to a school dance for the first time. When my senior year started, I had a lot of confidence in myself, and I hung out with a friend almost every week. I am no longer afraid to approach someone new and get to know them.
I emailed my case manager about my progress from freshman year to senior year and this is what she has to say. “During your freshman year, staying on task was a challenge, and you required the support of a PCA to help you remain focused and to navigate both the building and the expectations of high school. As you progressed into your sophomore year, you began to outgrow that need, taking on more rigorous classes and developing additional skills that allowed us to fully remove the PCA support. By your junior year, you were independently navigating your classes and the building with great success. Instead of a PCA, you initially checked in with me, but it quickly became clear that you no longer needed that level of support either. Your determination to learn is what enabled you to move from needing constant assistance to working independently—and even driving yourself to and from school.” I agree with my case manager that I have a lot of support when I first got into high school. But over time, I started to become more independent and started to build up my confidence to be successful. I think because I had to work harder than most of my peers, it gave me the drive to put in my best work and to never give up.
