“I’m not a fast learner or academically gifted or as talented as other people here at Lee College. But I try very hard.

“I failed a math course last semester. I tried. I even got help from a professor, but I still failed. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to fail college. People might expect me to drop out or not be in college at all. But I’m going to change that perspective, that expectation, for people like me with autism or any other kind of disability.

“I’m very thankful for the disabilities department here and my tutor, Ms. Claire. She’s an amazing person. She helps me with my class assignments. She’s always encouraging and supportive. She motivates me when I may be exhausted or discouraged from life as a college student. And she always reminds me how unique I am compared to other students.

“Being a college student isn’t easy. But it’s worth it if one day, I’ll be on that stage graduating. I’ll be able to say, ‘I made it.’ I want to do it for myself. But I also want to do it for my parents. They always made me feel special, and that I can do anything I put my mind to. I want to make them proud. My dad won’t be here to see it, but I know he’ll be looking down on me when I cross that stage with my diploma.

“I love sports, and I’d love to become a coach one day. Or maybe a motivational speaker. Inspiring and motivating people is something that I always try to do. To keep that fire burning.

“I try to share positive quotes with people. I try to encourage them in whatever they’re doing. I think it’s important. Because sometimes, we all need that. Especially nowadays. I think we’re in dark times. We need more people who like to help you up when you’re feeling down.

“Some people may think that if you’re autistic, you can’t go anywhere, you can’t do anything with your life. I want to prove those people wrong. Being autistic is challenging. But it’s also a gift. It isn’t going to stop me from being the person I want to be, or helping the people I want to help.”

— Roberto (Berto) Nunez Jr.

Related:

• Sports families boost student with autism

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“I was diagnosed with autism when I was 6 years old. My dad didn’t really understand what autism was. I asked, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ My mom said, ‘No. It just means that you’re special. It means that you’re unique, not like everyone else.’ Because I liked cartoons and stuff, it was explained to me that I was like the Wolverine in X-Men. Like, that’s my super power.

“Growing up was challenging, just trying to make friends and fitting in. Some people were mean. In junior high, kids would call me weirdo, ugly, all kinds of things. It was hard.

“But that’s where I met coach (Scott) Griffin. He was a football coach. He’s the man who found me and started helping me. He looked at me as a person, not an autistic person.

“When I got to high school, things were different. I got a chance to be manager for the Goose Creek Memorial football team. Coach (Bret) Boyd was really supportive, and the players were all good to me. I started making friends. People started liking me for me. And I cared about them. I felt like they were my brothers. They were my family.

“I was also team manager for basketball and baseball, all four years. It made me feel important. For the first time, it made me feel special. I felt like I had meaning in my life. I had a purpose. It was everything to me.

“Then when I began taking classes at Lee College, coach (Nick) Wade let me start helping out with the basketball team. It was after COVID, and I was trying to get back on my feet again socially.

“This was also the time when my dad had a heart attack. One day we got a call from the hospital, and they said we better come. He’s dying. That was awful. It still makes me sad to talk about.

“But all the coaches and the guys on the basketball team were so supportive. They were worried for me. If they weren’t there for me during that time, I don’t know where I would be.

“I’m so thankful to coach Wade. He gave me a team to be part of again. He gave me a family again.”

— Roberto (Berto) Nunez Jr.

Related:

• Autism ‘isn’t going to stop me’

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“I was supposed to be at Disney World from January to May 2020. But I was having so much fun as a PhotoPass photographer, I applied for an extension to August, and I got it.

“In our morning briefings in January, they reminded us about flu season, and to make sure we washed our hands, used hand sanitizer, that type of thing. Mid-February, the briefings started talking about this thing called COVID. They asked us to help limit contact between guests, limit photos we were taking, and wipe down our equipment often. Beginning of March, they really upped the precautions.

“Then around March 12, we learned Disney World was closing for 2-3 weeks. We thought we were going to just stay in our apartments, then head back to the parks when they opened again. About two days later, we got an email saying that due to COVID-19 and all the unknowns, they were ending our program early and sending us back home. We had to be out of our apartments in 72 hours.

“We still had one full day of the parks being open, and I had a shift that day. Because it was such a shock and everything ended so abruptly, Disney cast members and management really made our last day memorable.

“One of my managers asked if there was an area or character I’d like to work with. I said that I’d love to shoot with Mickey and Minnie, even if just for one family. She put me with them for three hours. It was unbelievable. They even cleared out the area to give me one last goodbye with Mickey and Minnie, and I got some hugs and pictures with them.

“After clocking out for the final time, they again went above and beyond. They asked if there was anything on our bucket list, like rides or shows we hadn’t seen, and they made it happen. Cast members showered us with love and appreciation. We had so much fun. And as sad of an ending as it was, it was something I’ll never forget because of the kindness of so many people who poured out their hearts to us.

“Then we went back to our apartments and packed it up. About 24 hours later, I was on the road, heading back to Texas.”

— Kenzie Lackey

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• Disney internship adventure begins

• ‘It’s tough right now, but this is only temporary’

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“In 1996, I received a plaque from GCCISD for my PSAT scores on behalf of the National Merit Program. It was called ‘The Exceptional Negro’ award. I’d scored in the top 5% of black high school juniors, which qualified me for the National Achievement Scholarship for Outstanding Negro Students. When I received the award, it did something to me. It translated to me as: ‘It’s a Negro … but an exceptional one.’ I’ve never been the same since that night at the school board headquarters.

“It was the beginning of a revelation that I was content competing to be ‘the best black.’ If I was the best black or separated myself as exceptional among the rest of the black folks around me, I was content with that — proud even. Which wasn’t hard, considering the bias in our school system that measured ‘smarts’ and ‘behavior’ on a scale of ‘ability to appropriate.’

“I had a fierce sense of intellectual competition, but I needed to be seen and respected as exceptional among my black friends only. I was OK with being micro-aggressed, degraded, and even demeaned by my Hispanic and white peers.

“The journey started that night, and it continued into college. College was the first place where I met black students who did not ‘talk white’ who I knew were smarter than me, and I was shocked. Code switching was a social and behavioral survival skill, but I subconsciously thought it was a prerequisite to intellect. I had to unlearn a bias that I didn’t even know I was taught.

“I’ve lived my life under the trope of ‘The Exceptional Negro’ and its weight. I’ve finally come to the conclusion that none of us are free to be exceptional until all of us are free to be average — and still be something.”

— Nikki Brooks II

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“When I was in college studying to become a teacher, it was more about making lesson plans and basic things like that. We didn’t have our own students that we were measuring for progress and continuously assessing. When you get your own classroom, you find out pretty quickly that there’s a big focus on testing and data and paperwork and more data. You’re looking at all these numbers and scores and tiers, and labeling the kids for different things. That was probably the biggest surprise for me.

“I understand why testing is beneficial. We want to ensure that the kids are learning and progressing. And the only way to really be accountable for that is to assess them. But there’s just so much pressure put on that one test, that one day. It’s hard for the kids, and it’s hard for the teachers and administrators.

“I teach third-grade math. And on our campus, there’s a pretty low socioeconomic status. Some of the kids come to us on a first-grade math level or second-grade reading level. So trying to get all of them to pass the STAAR test can be challenging. It’s just an ongoing process. Some kids can really catch on and some continue to struggle. That could be because of an underlying issue, or they may just struggle for a couple years until they finally get the hang of things. It’s stressful for the teachers because you’re asked, why isn’t so-and-so performing on these tests? It puts us in a challenging spot.

“The families want to help any way they can. We’re constantly meeting with parents and keeping them updated on their child’s progress and what they can do to help. We’re always going to have some form of state testing. There’s probably no way around it. So we all just have to keep working together to make sure the kids are in the best position possible to be successful.”

— Matty DuPree

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“School has always been sort of easy for me. I’m good at projects. Perfect for projects. But the one thing is, I’m not a really good test taker. For some reason, I’ve got like this phobia when it comes to tests. It’s like when there’s a test, I lose track of all the answers. Just like, ‘OK, what is this?’ I kind of freeze up. It’s not all the time. But it still happens sometimes, especially if it’s something big and worth a lot of points.”

So how do you combat that fear?
“I don’t know. I guess I just fight my way through it. The pressure, it still kind of plays on me. But I just kind of battle through it.”

— Mike

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“I’m a pretty positive person. My parents have always encouraged me to think positively and not negatively. They say that’s the way to achieve success. Keep moving forward, never stop, be someone. I have the best family. They love me. They take care of me. I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

— Steven Sanchez

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Several times a month I walk the campus of Lee College in search of students to interview. That’s the fun part. The not-so-fun part is finding a place to park.

On this particular morning I opted for the auxiliary lot down the street. Good call, as I quickly found a spot.

Unfortunately, my two-minute walk to campus turned into a 15-minute wait because of a passing train. But it was worth the delay.

Lorena Moraes was looking at her phone when I approached her on the gazebo adjacent to the Rebel Roost snack bar. She was between classes, the best time to have a quick conversation.

I thought she might be attending IMPACT Early College High School. That’s where students take both high school and college classes to get a jump-start on their college degree.

It turns out that Lorena is 17 and already a full-time student at Lee College. She is in her second semester studying pre-engineering.

On her own

Lorena arrived in Baytown in May 2015 as a foreign exchange student. Her father, back home in Campos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, wanted her to experience different cultures and learn how to be on her own.

She has done just that while attending Ross S. Sterling High School, graduating last spring, then deciding to stay in Baytown to get her college basics out of the way.

It was scary at first for Lorena, who thought she was going to live somewhere in the northern section of the United States.

“Then I found out I was going to Texas. I was like, no, I don’t want to live on a farm. I don’t want to wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning to take the bus to school. Please, don’t do that to me,” she recalled.

“But my dad told me it’s the place where you least expect something good to happen that sometimes gives you the most important opportunity of your life.”

It took Lorena a while to become used to her new surroundings and a new language. There was a moment early on when she wanted to “get back on that plane and go home.”

After getting to know her host family and making other friends, though, Lorena began to enjoy her new life.

“Now I love staying here,” she said. “Although, sometimes you’re homesick. You get lonely and miss your family, especially around the holidays.”

Family connections

Lorena’s father made the trip for her high school graduation. And she got to spend six weeks back home during the summer break.

But Lorena regrets not being there when her grandfather died several months ago. “Still, I was happy that he got to know I was in college already.”

Lorena worries that transferring to a four-year university may put a strain on the family’s finances. But if all goes well, she will continue her studies to become a chemical engineer.

During her time here, Lorena has grown up fast.

“It’s great, because I don’t like to lose too much time. I like to be doing a lot of different things and keeping busy,” she said.

As for following her father’s dream that she explore the world at a young age?

“I would tell anybody to be a foreign exchange student, because you grow up a lot faster,” Lorena said. “You’re like that kid living with your parents, and then you go to another country and you see what the rest of the world is really like. It’s been an amazing experience.”

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“I married somebody in the military, so we moved all over the world. My kids were born in Italy. When we came back to the states, we started hosting foreign exchange students because we wanted to keep some of that diverse culture going.

“We’ve hosted seven kids from five different countries so far. Since we have a son and daughter, we try to alternate between boys and girls. It’s so neat for my kids. They like to tell people how many brothers and sisters they have, and the numbers keep growing. They think of them as siblings.

“From each student they learn a little bit of each language and culture. My daughter learned ‘I love chocolate’ in Swedish. The exchange student said she was teaching her the important phrases.

“My kids have memorized all the flags. They know where all the countries are. Last year in sixth grade, my son had to learn all the geography of foreign countries and had tests over where each country was. He said, ‘I’m the only one who got 100.’ He thought that was pretty neat.”

— Mandi Ford

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“I’m working toward an engineering degree. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with it yet, but I know I don’t want to go into industry.

“I realize this may seem pretty ambitious, but I’d be really content toward the end of my life if I could look back and know that I had made a discovery or invented something that advanced humanity. Big picture, I’d like to create something that helps the world.”

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