CARDcast #5 Officer from Impact Autism


Ann-Marie Orlando hello and welcome to the CARDcast a


podcast of the university of Florida's


center for autism and related


disabilities


I am your host Ann-Marie Orlando


Associate Director


at the center and research assistant


professor in the Department of


Psychiatry


the mission of the UF CARDcast is to


share with our listeners


relevant information about who we are


what we do


and what we can do to help you over the


course of our podcast series


we will be talking with members of our


own staff as well as our constituents


and their families


service providers and researchers who


are doing groundbreaking work


in the field of autism we also hope to


give you


a fuller picture and a better


understanding of autism spectrum


disorder


and related disabilities such as dual


sensory impairments


and developmental disabilities with


sensory impairment


thank you for joining us our guests for


today


are officers from the student


organization impact autism


we're delighted to have you talk with us


today and


I thought at first we would have you all


introduce yourselves to our audience


Sheldon Joseph so Sheldon all right Hello everyone


my name is Sheldon Sheldon Joseph um a


third year at the University of Florida


studying uh cognitive behavioral


neuroscience


um I am actually the president of impact


autism and um thank you for be


having me here Dr Orlando hi everyone


Ava Vause I'm Ava


and I'm a fourth year student at the


University of Florida I'm also vice


president


of this club and I'm majoring in


cognitive and behavioral


neuroscience hi I'm Tiffany's Zweifel


Tiffany's Zweifel I am treasurer of impact autism I'm a


first year occupational therapy doctor


Amber Nipper student hi I'm Amber I am publicist for


Impact autism


I'm in my first year of the bhs the otd


combined program so I'm doing my third


year of undergrad


and working in my first year of my


doctorate for occupational therapy as


well


Daniel Chong hello everybody my name is Daniel Chong


and I'm a third year undergrad


student in the UF medical honors program


and I am the my friends coordinator for


impact


Ann-Marie Orlando autism fantastic as you all can tell we


have


just an incredible group of young adults


with us


so um so Sheldon and the rest of you


also


please feel free to chime in tell me a


little bit about the history


of impact autism here at the university


and how it all got started


Sheldon Joseph Well from my recollection it was started


by


uh four college students four women at


that time


back in  I think their goal was to


there wasn't really a program that


integrated UF students into the


local autism beauty in gainesville so


they wanted to take charge of that


they wanted to you know make that


connection for us students


uh pretty sure their mission was


you know kind of have volunteering


opportunities that students can you know


um have them interact with you know the


local


autism spectrum community here in


gainesville


Ann-Marie Orlando That's great so why did you all decide


to join this organization


Sheldon Joseph well for me it was mainly um


it's kind of funny when I first came to


University of Florida


when you're a freshman they give you you


know all these


uh club meeting type things you get to


go or


you know see what kind of clubs you want


to join or what's out there


um i've always had an interest in


psychology since high school after I was


like a psychology class


not only that back home i've uh


you know have a lot of people that I'm


close with that


have some kind of well my sister she has


adhd and I had the uh


young kid who kind of like a little


brother to me that was on the autism


spectrum as well


so um you know those kind of things led


me to the club


and when I joined it was very open very


welcoming I liked


hanging out with the kids that's one of


the events that we do


on one of our major events and as i


continued on


just meeting the people there and they


were part of it it really grew on me and


so I wanted to be more a part of it


after that


Ann-Marie Orlando that's that's great I agree that it's


just a very welcoming group of students


so I can understand why


you would be drawn to it anybody else


want to talk about why you decided to


join the organization


Amber Nipper  I joined because I have a cousin on


the spectrum that lives up north and i


don't see him a lot it seemed like once


every


five to six years so I joined because


i can't really do much for him but i


wanted to help out you know kids on the


spectrum


and my local in my local community so i


joined


because I wanted to make a difference


with kids around here since I can't


really help my cousin that much


Tiffany Zweifel  I joined because I want to be a


pediatric occupational therapist working


with kids with autism and so when i


found out


about this group I was immediately drawn


to it I have so much fun at our kids day


outs where we have a bunch of


kids with autism come and we play with


them for the whole afternoon


and the after the first time coming I


knew I wanted to


come every month has always been the


highlight of my month


Ava Vause So I actually joined because I was


waiting at the bus stop and I had this


little autism awareness


ribbon on the back of my backpack and


this random girl just came up to me and


was like


you'd be great for this club called


Impact for Autism


and she's like look it up on Facebook


and so I did


and i've been hooked ever since but i


just think that's funny because I was


just sitting there at the bus stop and


someone randomly came up to me to tell


me about it and I would have probably


never known


Daniel Chong about it before then I think for me it


was uh


more on the personal side because before


I started college


my my family we fostered a child from


ukraine and he


had a physical disability and so


um I think that was my first exposure to


really


the kind of the world of disability in


general and so when I entered college I


sort of


wanted to learn more about it and I


think


just off like autism and learning about


autism was just the next step and


my understanding of sort of this topic


and


the way I found Impact Autism was


actually just through a normal tabling


and I think the previous officers um a


few years ago they were the ones at the


table


and so they were very welcoming and warm


to me and I just walked up


and they got me plugged into the


organization and i've been hooked ever


since and so


i really appreciate all the experiences


that i've had so far with the club and


just


as well as learning um just and


understanding a lot more about asd


and so yeah tabling it can


definitely be effective whereas probably


people might not think so


Ann-Marie Orlando right at first thank you to everybody


for


sharing your entree into uh Impact


Autism and


autism in general Tiffany I want to go


back to you because you talked about


the kids day outs can you tell a little


bit about that and how it all works


Tiffany Zweifel yeah so um prior to COVID every month


we during the school year it would be on


a sunday afternoon for a couple of hours


where


the parents can drop off their kids and


we have a bunch of volunteers from


UF and all background checked and they


a couple volunteers will go with each


kid and the parents get to have


a afternoon off and the kids


have a great time we have um arts and


crafts we have


you know hula hoops and uh a parachute


all these balls and we're at the west


side park


and um great time at the park and


there's uh


basketballs and but just whatever the


kids want to do it's a


their time to have um unstructured fun


where we go do whatever they want to do


Ann-Marie Orlando That's fun I've been to some of those


kids day outs and they're


very exciting and I know the kids all


have a great time


and so it's not just kids with autism


also their siblings can come as well


isn't that right


Tiffany Zweifel yes sorry I forgot to say that yeah


Ann-Marie Orlando That's great


so um Daniel you mentioned that you are


the my friends coordinator so tell us a


little bit about my friends and how that


all works


Daniel Chong Yeah absolutely I'm the my friends


coordinator which is essentially just i


coordinate and host


some special events that are for a


specific group that is a part of impact


autism called My Friends


which and My Friends has targeted a lot


more towards


young adults who are on the spectrum as


uh and so


sort of different than the kids who


usually partake in the kids day outs


and with my friends there's just all


sorts of activities that


we've done in the past in fact that was


actually one of the most fun parts about


the club uh for me just attending those


events and


every time it would be different so so


one day we would be learning how to knit


and I actually still have


the yarn and some of the stuff that we


made in the needles from that I still


have not practiced it though but


um it was really interesting to learn


that and then some days we'd have like


music


sort of functions and then we'd all just


bring instruments and play together


and uh do some beat boxing which was fun


and there's maybe may or may not be


videos of that as well but


uh yeah my friends could be all sorts of


things sometimes it is


or most of the times it's hosted at the


center for autism


and related disabilities or the CARD


office


that's affiliated with um impact autism


or sometimes it could be


an outdoor activity however since COVID


has started that's sort of been


halted at least in doing the in-person


activities but online it's still


been just as easily accessible for


people to


hop online on a computer and just to


watch something together or just play


online games together


it's my friends is just a place for um


young adults who are on the spectrum in


the Gainesville community


um and not just in Gainesville but just


sort of around to meet each other and


just to make friends


and so through the org or through that


part of the organization


i've definitely met some amazing friends


amazing people


who i've had great conversations with


and I still talk to them


um even through the phone if it's not in


person


Ann-Marie Orlando of course anymore that's great so I was


going to ask you


Amber I know that oftentimes that you as


officers all come to our office and


volunteer


and help with so many things can you


talk about


Amber Nipper that part of impact autism we do a lot


with CARD we um


we do that they could stay out and we do


our monthly meetings and we also come to


CARD


um to help them organize or get our


stuff together we have all of our


supplies at the CARD office so we


you know we go there to get all the


balls and the toys that we use for our


events


we have um a big event called stomp the


swamp and we do a lot at the court


office for that


we have a lot of stuff there for um for


that event so thank you for letting us


keep our stuff there because it really


helps


um but we do go there a lot just to do


little things to help out


and to help plan our bigger events


Ann-Marie Orlando  great I know many of you have also been


at our office and helped us to create


visual supports and I know


that's so that's so helpful to our staff


because visual supports are very useful


so amber you mentioned stop the swamp


and I know


Sheldon and Ava you have been involved


in that


the planning for that event this year


can you talk a little bit about that


Sheldon Joseph yeah so um for stomp the swamp because


of


the last year we weren't able to


actually we planned everything out for


 and we had everything ready to go


and was


just getting to the date to do and then


boom the pandemic hits and we have to


pull everything back


make sure everything was safe so we had


to cancel everything but our real


challenge was trying to figure out how


we would want to do this


now in a um you know a different society


than it used to be


um so I think the key thing that we're


trying to go on is you know


a fully virtual event very similar to


the ones that we do


in person but you know safer protocols


so that way no one has to be


in contact everyone can be safe and um


secure and you know not uh have to worry


about


these situations mainly what's gonna


happen is we will do


kind of a virtual marathon where instead


of


actually running a marathon at the ben


hill griffin stadium which we've been


doing for years


we would actually ask people to kind of


run a marathon


at their own place at their house or in


their um


in their in their house on treadmill if


they want to run around their community


anywhere that's safer for them


um and we will ask them to track them


with a


some type of app most likely strava


which can record actually the miles that


you run


and from there we will use that for our


awards and


achievements and everything else we also


always include a silent auction for stop


the swamp


um usually our biggest the uh event


there


um where people you know we ask


businesses from the local community or


places where you can give


um you can uh bid for certain items


and hopefully receive them there's been


a lot of great items throughout the


years and we hope to get


some new ones this time yeah anyone can


really join it's


gonna be a there's gonna be a pricing


ticket to come in as there always is


you could also get the price and ticket


will allow you to


get a shirt and we have uh yearly shirts


that we do annual shirts


for our events this one will be for 


since we couldn't do   we're gonna


have   and we also have all of our


previous year shirts available for


purchase


um if you would like those there's some


amazing designs from back in the day


they've always been a real hit with


everyone everyone loves them along with


those we will actually have kind of live


stream


activities some of our volunteers will


do arts and crafts or exercises


or you know dance videos something


something along them it's something to


keep it entertaining when the events


actually going on


um and now we also want to hold panels


for anybody um


any businesses that want to talk about


something or CARD they want to have a


panel to talk to people while the events


going on


we'll have time schedules for everything


of that sort and right now we're on the


whole


planning process we've talked about a


little bit mainly we have


come to a date for when we want this to


uh happen so um we've we're planning for


March 


uh saturday March th to be the date


that we actually hold stomp the swamp


and um hopefully we get everything done


by then and


Amber Nipper  it goes smoothly I have to say stop the


swamp is like one of my favorite events


i've been in impact autism since my


freshman year so this is my third year


and i


i wasn't on exec until my second year in


it but one of the things that


really like touched me was how much


money be raised my first year at impact


i was on


um the planning committee for stop the


swamp and just to see how much money


we could raise as students if this is a


good student-ran event


so it was very like honestly amazing how


much money we raised i


forget the number but it was it was a


lot and it was just amazing that


it was planned by students and like we


really did make a big impact


you know and path autism big impact but


it was


it was really I don't know that's one of


the like main things that


um like really was like wow I want to be


like


more involved in this I raised twelve


Tiffancy Zweifel  thousand one hundred and twenty dollars


Ann-Marie Orlando  for CARD that year you're exactly right


and uh we use some of those funds to


purchase safety gearboxes which contain


materials to help


families keep children with autism who


might tend to wander


and so it includes some arm bracelets


includes some


door alarms it has some shoe tags so


that the


child is found they cannot the child can


be easily identified


by friends or neighbors or people in the


community


might see the child walking around and


also the alarms can


help to signal the family that a child


has


left the area so we truly are


appreciative


of all of the efforts that impact autism


makes to


support CARD and our local autism


community


so I'm going to put that on my calendar


now march March th that's very exciting


Sheldon Joseph  market down the date everyone mark it


down you're ready


it's going to happen absolutely so


Ann-Marie  Historically you know an hour before the


event there are all these other


activities that happen beforehand right


so


i know before we've had the dazzlers


through performances we


have had all kinds of mr hype man was


there


doing you know getting everybody excited


for the event


what folks do you have lined up this


Sheldon Joseph year we might see if we can get some


other dance group to come through


um not entirely sure who yet we have


we're still you know in contact with


some of them


uh maybe the dazzlers or some new groups


uh we do want to get in contact with


some of the football players see if they


want to make their own appearances


you know it would be great to see if


like if they had time


to you know interact with the people and


um


that are there because right now our


football team is doing amazing


um and I know a lot of people would love


the chance to talk to them or have the


opportunity to talk to them so that


would be great


um and honestly it's you know there's


still a lot of


things where you want to go we're trying


to see what will work with this style of


event that's you know live and we're


trying to feel out you know what would


work and what wouldn't because it's a


lot


different than in person where a lot of


things can work but some things might


not work


over a you know connection based system


where you know internet could be shabby


for some people or they might not have


the equipment to do so


stuff like that so we're trying to


figure that out too right so


Ann-Marie Orlando  and in this way too because you're doing


it using distance technologies people


can participate


around the country around the world if


they wanted to right


Sheldon Joseph  so so how will they get their shirts


um we are planning to do kind of a you


know shipping package


system we're gonna go through um that


process but it's basically we're gonna


ship it to you


you gotta provide your information and


everything and that's how you get your


shirts for the event


Ann-Marie Orlando fantastic fantastic and then you


mentioned the app it's


what was the name of the app again that


you'll be using to track strava


Sheldon Joseph strava strata okay so people will be


able to to run


and track their run yeah the app will


try to


track the miles and actually track um


the kind of path that you take and


everything and then we'll use that


people can send that in it has a link to


share it to Facebook you would share it


to our Facebook page


and we will keep track of that and


everything and you know post it


have like you know daily um come on


daily you'll all be on the event on that


day so you'll see updates constantly


every


you know every couple seconds if people


were posting these stuff


and we'll probably post some make


announcements like good job you


ran this many miles or this person has


this many miles in this sort of time or


they had a bunch of people a whole team


that went


and did everything you know whatever


they want to do we're trying to make it


very uh


active and fun and you know if you guys


people want to send pictures with their


mouths and stuff like that they can do


to


show that they're doing it'll be fun


Amber Nipper I have this vision in my head of um it's


gonna be very Facebook heavy of


um the silent auction will be on


Facebook and the miles will be on


Facebook


and what I'm hoping we could do is um


get like the football players and


different athletes to come and maybe do


like breakout rooms like zoom or


Facebook live things and like that's


what I envision in my head


it'll be very Facebook heavy but I think


it will um


still be a very fun event especially for


kids that


look up to these athletes you know


Ann-Marie Orlando absolutely


and so you all have a Facebook account


right and is it just


impact autism at UF is that how people


could find it


Amber Nipper yeah it's impact autism at UF perfect


Ann-Marie Orlando perfect and then you also have a website


right


Amber Nipper yes it's a impact autism is a wix site


website I don't know the exact


url but it should pop up it's linked on


our Facebook as well


okay perfect so that's how people can


find out about it they'll also be able


to find out about it through our website


our CARD website


and um also on our Facebook page um


and all of our social media we will be


um hosting the event


well you know this is great I'm very


excited about this event it's


it's a huge fundraiser for CARD so


we're very appreciative of


everyone's efforts so um before we


sign off I want to find out a little bit


about what your plans are for the future


you know after you after you leave us


here at the university


what what are your plans well for me


Sheldon Joseph  my goal has always been trying to become


a doctor I want to go to medical school


and I think


prior to that uh learning about


psychology and learning about everything


I think I'm grabbing towards


Child Psychiatry I think that's my goal


i've always been one of the per


people that kind of had a goal and focus


strictly on that goal and so I think


you know all that's leading up to this


point has been towards that goal and I'm


trying to reach it


um I think I'm doing a pretty good job


so far uh


i really use this opportunity just as


experience to get to know people get to


know what


um you know families on the autism


spectrum are like what their kids are


like


what people are like and how the


community is because I don't want to be


a kind of doctor that's so far into the


books and the science of things that


ignores


what goes on with the reality of people


and how you know


you know community can treat them or how


they have to deal with stuff in the


community and I want to provide


something that


is very personalized something that


works with them


um that's kind of the mindset where i


want to take all these experiences i


have


in college to gaining


a uh you know a medical school education


and then go on with that now say if i


don't get to medical school I still feel


like


um these opportunities will help me


whatever career field I'll pick


or probably gravitate towards you know


helping


people with uh you know disabilities or


anyone on the autism spectrum or you


know make sure they're implemented


for that whatever I do and you know


still try to volunteer help


out that's um that's my goal I guess


Ann-Marie Orlando  Well that's great Sheldon we're so


appreciative and I'm


I'm certain that anybody who has you for


their doctor in their future will be


appreciative of the perspective that you


bring


to help them that's fantastic thank you


thank you what about you Ava


Ava Vause  hi so right now I'm in the application


cycle for medical school


and I'm really hoping on creating an


inclusive environment


wherever I go so hopefully I want to


create like another organization while


in medical school


to support individuals with autism and


related disabilities


I'm hoping just to create more awareness


because I know a lot of people know


about that in the medical field


so I'm just excited to do that that's so


Ann-Marie Orlando  important you know I think one of our


missions too


is just to increase the knowledge and


understanding of medical providers um


in the field so I'm so excited that


you'll bring this experience


to your future career thank you


Tiffany Zweifel  I just started ot school this


past


august so I have three more years till


I'm an occupational therapist


but I either want to work in the school


setting or an


outpatient clinic and I have such a love


for working with


children with autism so I I'm definitely


hoping to bring my experiences from


impact autism


into my career as an occupational


therapist


Ann-Marie Orlando  absolutely you know here we've started


the new center for autism and


neurodevelopment


and house in this center is our center


card


but also UF rehab where we have


occupational


physical and speech language therapists


who are here working with


individuals who have autism so I really


hope you have an opportunity to come


here and see what's going on


you'll love it that would be great


what about you Amber so I am one year


Amber Nipper  behind Tiffany I have four years to life


and with my doctor in occupational


therapy and I just with my degree I hope


to


continue to advocate for an inclusive


environment


um I'm not sure what field I want to go


into I do love


children but I there's a lot more in


this field than I thought


but I do want to take my experience here


and everything i've learned


about autism and inclusiveness and I'm


just advocating for people with


disabilities and really apply it to my


future job as an occupational therapist


Ann-Marie Orlando Absolutely and Amber I can already see


that you're doing that because you also


participate in our social gainers


program for UF


students who have autism and so you


you've put in a lot of time so you've


you've gained a lot of experience


so we're very excited to have you as a


part of all of these efforts


and Daniel I know you plan to go to


medical school as well


Daniel Chong yes and yeah so for part of the medical


honors program it's it's like a seven


year integrated program so next


fall I will be matriculating into UFcom


or UF college of medicine


so that'll be very exciting in terms of


future goals


i would like to go into the field of


pediatrics but I'm not super sure on the


specifics of that yet


I'm sort of hoping that my experiences


and my time there will help me form a


a better goal or more clear pathway that


i should take


but I think just like with everyone all


the other officers as well


i very much like to um advocate and just


make a more


um make it environments in in the


medical fields that


is more aware of different disabilities


whether it be autism or other related


disabilities as well


and so I hope that my experience with


impact


um as well as other things like I'm


trying to I'm still in the midst of


learning


American sign language which has been


challenging but also difficult


but that's been really fun to be


learning and as well as


part of my research is also looking into


muscular dystrophy


and so I'm just hoping to combine sort


of


all this information about disabilities


and just bring it into essentially any


realm that


I can um help contribute to whether it


be the medical field or just my


community around me


and so um I just appreciate all the


opportunities and just the


the fun experiences that I've had um


just to help me


find the path that I would like to go


down and just so I can help other people


as well as all the other officers on


this board


and I know we all have very similar


goals in mind


when it comes to these topics that


Ann-Marie Orlando that does seem very true that you all


have similar goals in mind and all


are working toward having a role in the


helping professions


and so as I always say it I feel


better about the future after talking


with students so thank you again for


giving me that feeling of optimism as we


look toward the future


so thank you all so much for joining us


for this CARD cast we so appreciate your


time


and your dedication to helping


individuals


on the spectrum this has been a UF card


cast


please visit us next time when we will


have an another interview with an


interesting group of people


I'm your host Ann-Marie Orlando and we


will see you next time