To Whom It May Concern:

          As my senior year at high school draws to a close, it becomes the time when I look back and see how far I’ve come.  After all, to be both autistic and an honors-level student is no easy task, and certainly a task I could never have done on my own.  Looking back, I can see that the people most responsible for my growth and maturity are a group called FOCUS Alternative Learning Center.

          Before the “FOCUS years,” in elementary school, I was an ace at class assignments, but had very few people that I was truly friends with.  I simply couldn’t accept feedback if it wasn’t positive, it was almost impossible for me to socialize, and I could not figure out that the teachers were trying to be helpful instead of mean.  Of course, I had my academic talents, such as incredible spelling and math abilities, but being able to help or be helped by others was far beyond my reach.  FOCUS sought to change all that.

          Simply put, FOCUS is a private school by day, an after school “learning center” by afternoon, and a day camp during the summer.  The common goal at FOCUS is to work with kids, usually third to eighth grade level, to improve their skills both academically and psychologically.  While there are only a moderate number of people who are there for the school aspect, the true meaning of FOCUS is to teach kids how to get along with peers and adults, how to correctly keep a conversation flowing, and how to learn and have fun at the same time.

          Having attended the FOCUS summer sessions for five years and their after-school groups since starting high school, I can confidently say that FOCUS is the one aspect that changed my life.  How they managed to help me when no one else could most likely lies in their ability to think outside the box and assess situations from a psychological point of view.  This aspect managed to help me when, after suffering an extreme mood swing from the previous week, the counselors managed to discover that I had swimmer’s ear.  Any other learning center group would probably not have looked that far into it.  To help me, as well as the other campers, learn to succeed with minimal help, FOCUS has everyone set goals for themselves that will reward them with an end-of-week “allowance” if they follow through.

          This delicate balancing act of assisting and letting go at the right moment is what helped me to grow.  When I advanced to becoming a counselor-in-training, things became almost overwhelming at first, but now that I had learned how to fend for myself, things slowly became easier as I set goals on improving my weaknesses and learning how to follow through on them.  With the help of everyone involved, I made a lot of new friends and became a stronger person at the same time.

          Today, as my high school years come to a close, I can never thank FOCUS enough for being my inspiration and making me into the person I am today.  I am certain that, at whatever college I get into, after the trials and tribulations there become conquerable, I’ll look back on them and say, “It couldn’t have been done without FOCUS.”

CJ Jordan - 2004

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