New students are often surprised by the welcoming community that they find in a Foundation Workshop. What is it like to start at Islands of Brilliance?

As Co-Founder and Chief Education Officer, Margaret Fairbanks explains how autism is defined. It comes down to defining “difference” and “difficulty.” “Words matter. And the words we have used throughout the years to diagnose and describe autism have been changing almost as quickly as the prevalence rate.”

I love how as a part of this community, we are able to not only share our common experiences but our knowledge and the resources we collect along each of our personal journeys.

As we all know, last night was a difficult and unimaginable time for our country. As we witnessed these horrifying actions unfold, I couldn’t help but wonder if we should cancel our meeting. As we began our first meeting of the year, we acknowledged that most of us had considered not attending last night, and yet we did gather. As I reflect this morning, I am struck by the power of that seemingly simple action. We came together as a small community, we showed up for each other.