Sofia Rositani – Reporter
The Autism Awareness and Advocacy Club organized an event with Project Community Autism Socials at Yale.
The event was open to the public. During the event, the attendees began playing “America Says,” a game show hosted by John Michael Higgens.
If attendees did not want to play there were many rooms for attendees to go to like the Relaxation Room if they were feeling too over-stimulated.
There were also snacks and drinks for them to enjoy during the festivities.
President of the Autism Awareness Advocacy Club Carina Malik said the reason for the social was “to encourage kids with autism to participate more in university activities.”
This is was the first time this event was put on at Southern, according to Malik. She said it aimed to raise more awareness on about autism and have more students participate in these events.
“I don’t want to say it’s a disability, it’s just a different structure, and different way to view life,” Malik said.
“We do monthly events, we host different things on the autism spectrum and allies, we do things like monthly galas, we have pizza, monthly activities like for Thanksgiving, we did a Thanksgiving bingo,” said Anna Krause, support group head of Support Teach Advocate and Respect.
“In other words, it’s a hangout for people who don’t have anywhere else to hang out, it’s a community for people with autism.”
Krause wants people to notice there is support around, here is a place for them to build a community and to have the knowledge that they are not alone.
Krause said she has noticed there is more awareness and acceptance for people who are autistic, and that support groups have “grown in size” since she started when the project first started in 2013.
“The main thing is that if you meet someone with autism, they are not all the same, everyone is different and don’t assume things. If you have a question, ask,” Krause said.
Malik became president of the Autism Awareness and Advocacy Club this semester and is very serious about spreading awareness and making sure that people feel more open with students with autism and try to understand their point of view.
“I want to spread more awareness because I feel like a lot of students here are scared to tell their classmates that [they] have autism,” she said, “and we want to make it an environment where they can be very open about having autism and being more accepting of it, more understanding that sometimes they don’t view things or situations the same way.”
