North Carolina Autistic Career Summit: A New Tradition for North Carolina

Late last October we held the first statewide career summit for Autistic students and recent college graduates in North Carolina. Honestly, we would have been happy if 30 to 40 people showed up, engaged, listened to the featured speakers, and mingled a bit at the career fair. But, that's not what happened.

Over 110 people came to the Talley Student Union at NC State University (on a Saturday) from all over North Carolina to attend the summit. Parents, higher education staff and faculty, and representatives from 11 different organizations were all in attendance for one purpose--to help eliminate some of the existing barriers to well-paid, degree-related employment for North Carolina college students on the autism spectrum. And while this was great, what truly made the event special were the 67 students in attendance from 17 different universities and community colleges throughout the state--many of who earned interviews, which turned into internships, which turned into full-time job offers.

There were hugs, corny jokes (made by me), and students thanking us for acknowledging the unique obstacles they experience when seeking competitive internships and full-time opportunities. Our Autistic students are just as capable, just as brilliant, and (in my opinion) more resilient than their neurotypical peers due to the myriad of obstacles they had to overcome just to gain admittance into a community college or "four-year" university.

When we hear disparagingly low employment numbers for Autistic adults--including Autistic adults with college degrees--we need to understand those numbers as a reflection of systemic neurotypical barriers (SNB), i.e. misconceptions and wildly inaccurate stereotypes about individuals on the autism spectrum commonly held by neurotypicals and even other neurodivergent individuals who are not on the autism spectrum. Our students do not just survive when they are able to land these opportunities, they thrive. And because the response last year was absolutely resounding, we are doing it again for the fall 2020 semester but with a slight change.

Join us for the 2020 North Carolina Autistic Career Summit on October 9th at 11am - 3:30pm.

The summit will be held virtually this year via Zoom and the (free) Career Fair+ app. Here is a breakdown of the events for the summit:

• Welcome message (11am)
• Keynote conversation w/ Marcelle Ciampi, Senior Recruiter & Outreach Specialist w/ Ultranauts, Inc. (11:10am)
• North Carolina student recognition (12:10pm)
• #ActuallyAutistic professional panel (12:20pm)
• Career fair (1:30pm - 3:30pm)

This year, the summit is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and for the career fair portion of the event, the following organizations have already registered: SAS, BCBS of NC, GSK, IBM, Optum, NetApp, State of NC, UNC TEACCH Autism, and Ultranauts, Inc.

Due to the summit being virtual this year, space is not an issue. We have plenty of room for more employers and more students, so register today!

• Registration for employers: go.ncsu.edu/careersummit2020-employers
• Registration for students (including graduates regardless of how long ago you graduated!): go.ncsu.edu/careersummit2020-students
• Registration for advocates, allies, family/friends, faculty, staff, etc.

For questions about the North Carolina Autistic Career Summit, please contact Wesley Wade at [email protected]

Why “Autistic” and Not “With Autism”?

“The philosophy of [Students Moving Forward (SMF) and the career summit are] rooted in neurodiversity, which centers the normalization of the varied differences found within the human brain (Jaarsma & Welin, 2012). In addition, the philosophy of SMF [and the career summit] is aligned with the autistic community and therefore uses identity-first language when discussing people who are autistic to affirm their identity and strengths versus person-first language which is largely associated with the medical model perspective and often viewed as a way to pathologize members of this community (Kenny et al., 2016; see also Abel, Machin, & Brownlow, 2019; Brown, 2011; Bury, Jellett, Spoor, & Hedley, 2020; Vivanti, 2020).” Link to quoted article here.

*Autism shirt image came from Scott Michael Robertson, Ph.D.'s workshop/slide deck about Expanding Employment and Career Pathways for Youth and Young Adults on the Autism Spectrum*