Raising awareness about autism

More than 80 students and community members attended the Autism Awareness Day Fair at the Student Union lawn on the Brownsville campus to learn more about it and other disorders.

The American Medical Student Association Chapter at UTRGV hosted the annual fair.

“We do it to raise awareness, like, for autism, dyslexia and other disorders, such as hearing impairment, vision impairment, and we just use it to promote awareness on campus to the students,” said Anais Mendiola, public relations officer for the American Medical Student Association and a biomedical sciences senior. “So, the students can gain some knowledge and awareness to take it back to their community.”

Mendiola said she hopes the association continues hosting the event.

“This is our second one and we hope to do it again next year,” she said. “It takes about a semester to plan it just because we have so many awesome organizations. We have a lot of variations. There’s a little bit of everything, so it takes a while just to gather everyone to come see us at least for a short period of time.”

The event, which took place last Tuesday, featured several departments and organizations, such as the University of Texas Health Rio Grande Valley, University Library, Student Accessibility Services, Tropical Texas Behavioral Health and We TAG Autism.

UT Health Rio Grande Valley is the clinical practice of the UTRGV School of Medicine, according to its website.

“One of the things that people don’t really know is that when we ask, you know, ‘What is autism?’ the first [thing] they tell us is, ‘Well, you know, these kids are very delayed, they’re very disabled, they can’t function in society,’ and that is not true at all,” said Susy Perez, coordinator for the Parent 4c Program We TAG Autism at UTRGV.

Perez said the program she coordinates is part of a grant the university received for two years. The purpose of the program is to help community members create awareness about disabilities.

“This is a free training for parents that have kids with autism ages 4 through 10 and, right now, we have about 60 parents signed up,” she said. “So, we do meetings, we do play dates, we go out in the community.

“We are going to have a summer camp with our kids in June. It’s going to be a two-week program and we’re going to get help from the education department so they can work with our kids. We know that we don’t have a lot of resources in our area, so we know what it feels like to be newly diagnosed and just not know what to do.”

Perez said she has two children with autism and hopes they grow in a community where they can develop their abilities without experiencing stigma for their disorder.

“We do a lot of awareness activities, we go to play dates,” she said. “We had a run last week where we had all of our kids with disabilities doing a 1-mile run. It was awesome. That’s all free for the community and it is part of the university. It is open to anyone who has someone with autism. Even if they don’t qualify within the age, you can always call us.”

As part of the fair, Team Mario spoke to students to raise awareness about autism.

Team Mario was established after a boy named “Mario was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) shortly after his second birthday,” according to the organization’s official website. His mom and family “have been on a journey to help Mario reach his full potential” ever since.

“We pretty much put up events throughout the community for kids with autism and their families, so parents can come, feel accepted and we try to incorporate a lot of social skills so the children can communicate better,” said Lisa Beccera-Walker, program director for Team Mario and a legacy institution University of Texas-Pan American alumnus. “Our main purpose is to, of course, increase autism awareness and acceptance, but also to just give parents a sense of hope and unity.

“Everybody with autism is different, and so, one of my favorite quotes is, ‘If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism,’” Beccera-Walker said. “Give people a chance to surprise you, even if they’re different from you because everybody deserves a chance.”

Dulce Campos, a rehabilitation services senior, volunteered at the event because she said it is a great way to help the community and also learn communication skills.

“I love the experience and the activities, because I love helping our community,” she said. “You get the experience of communication, mainly, and wherever you are going to work, you need that so you are able to get involved with a lot of people, and the more you can, and the more you are able, it is easier for you.”