Southeast students Assist with Autism

The Assist with Autism group at Southeast Missouri State University held its first meeting on Sept. 2. The group met to discuss the future of Assist with Autism at Southeast.

The meeting was led by president, Haley Fitzgerald. She is a junior in the special education program at Southeast. The faculty advisor, Dr. Nancy Aguinaga, was also there via webcam.

"We're trying to do more stuff this year like we want to do a trivia night and invite parents from the autism exhibit and the community and have a section on autism. But the other sections would be like what a normal trivia would be," Fitzgerald said.

Assist with Autism held an awareness event last year and hopes to hold another one this year. Last year was the group's first year.

"The big awareness event we have is the interactive event we have in the UC where we have different stations where you can -- there are some simulations where you can kind of see what it's like to have sensory issues and be overwhelmed with such issues or understanding personal space, talking about people's language, talking about maybe there's some famous people that you didn't realize are in the autism spectrum and some contributions they've made to society. And then we have a quiz at the end and then we have some prizes. The big thing is that they pledge to assist with autism by being more aware of what it is, what it isn't, and that's been a pretty successful event in the past," Aguinaga said.

One of the activities at the exhibit really touched base with Fitzgerald.

"There's one that shows you what a normal person feels like with personal space and what a person with autism feels like with personal space," Fitzgerald said. "There was an iPad, last semester, what apps you could use for kids with autism. I think that's really important now because, I'm in the education program, and now all of us have iPads. Knowing that will help more students with autism."

The first event of this year is going to a zumba night. The date is still unknown. Several fundraisers are also planned for this upcoming year.

"We're going to do some fundraisers this year. We want to do Simply Swirled, I think McAlister's," Fitzgerald said. "We were thinking about maybe doing an Amazon wish list where we contact the people at Autism Exhibit and then see the things that they would need and then you put that on Amazon and then rate them average or high and then people can buy them and they'll be sent to the autism center."

Aguinaga has one big plan to raise awareness for autism.

"In April is the autism awareness month, so gradually, last year there were some organizations that participated in the light up blue so you know how they do the lights on the big bridge [the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge] to Illinois pink for breast cancer awareness? We're trying to get more things lit up in blue for autism, for autism awareness month," Aguinaga said.

The main goal of Assist with Autism is to spread attention and understanding for the disorder.

"We want to just spread awareness and raise money for people and we want to get people aware that this is a fast growing thing like the numbers went up, how often it occurs, and that there is no known cause for it even though people say it could be from getting your shots, and there's no known cause for it, and we want to help these kids feel normal," Fitzgerald said." Just like when people point out, 'Oh, he has autism,' it's kind of upsetting because these people, they are people and they just have autism. We want them to feel welcome and not so [secluded] from everyone else. That's why we're going to take them to the basketball game and everything else."

Fitzgerald said the goal of the organization is simple.

"It's a group of students who just want to spread awareness through the community and on campus about autism," Fitzgerald said.

Meetings are every first Tuesday of each month. Other information about the Assist with Autism group at Southeast can be found on the bulletin board on the 3rd floor of Scully. You can also check its social media pages on Facebook or @awasemo on Twitter.